THE AFL has sent clubs a series of videos to provide clarity on three rule interpretations for the season ahead, with a particular reinforcement of existing prior opportunity laws.
The three videos – which highlighted holding the ball, high contact and insufficient intent rules – were sent by the League to clubs last week as part of a continued measure to inform players and coaches on existing interpretations.
>> WATCH THE VIDEOS IN THE PLAYERS BELOW
It follows an earlier video sent by the AFL to club officials, featuring 11 separate examples of pushing in marking contests to ensure players and coaching staff were clear on what would and wouldn't be tolerated in 2025.
The most recent examples had a particular focus on holding the ball laws, which will not be altered going into the upcoming season. They highlighted players losing possession while being tackled, having not had prior opportunity to dispose of the footy.
The video highlighted an extract from the Laws of the Game, which states: "For the avoidance of doubt, a player does not elect to incorrectly dispose of the football when: a) the player genuinely attempts to correctly dispose of the football; b) the legal tackle causes the football to be dislodged from the player's possession."
Speaking to AFL.com.au on Wednesday, the League's umpires boss Steve McBurney described how players would be allowed to drop the ball, provided they genuinely attempt to dispose of the footy and didn't have prior opportunity.
"It's even a bit more layered than that," McBurney said.
"The attempted disposal for an immediate tackle, that's fine. That's play-on. The attempted disposal when they've had prior opportunity is holding the ball. If we take no other message out of this video, that's what we're trying to tell fans.
"We think players and coaches understand it, certainly the umpires do. But we think it's important for a reinforcement that that's how we're going to umpire holding the ball and that's how we have been umpiring holding the ball.
"The point we've made to the clubs is that this is not a round one interpretation. This is the law. This is how we will interpret in round one, round 12, round 22 and the Grand Final."
The videos will continue to be sporadically sent to clubs throughout the season, in similar fashion to past years, and replicate the training modules already provided to the League's umpires during a regular working week.
"(The umpires) are watching vision all the time," McBurney said.
"They watch their matches back, they sit down with their coaches and analyse it. Out of the examples that come out of weekends, we produce education modules. We produce VR material. That's how we train our umpires.
"What we want to do with these education modules is show the clubs what we show the umpires. We think that's really helpful for them to understand how we're interpreting a hot topic like holding the ball, so they can understand what we do.
"If you look at the holding the ball video, we expect all players would be on the same page as us on the first three examples. They're obvious holding the ball decisions. But we wanted to include a couple that were more line ball and clearly explain to the general public what prior opportunity constitutes."