A FORMER Hawthorn mastermind will perform a pivotal role behind the scenes in any significant future AFL rule changes.
David Rath has become a key man at League headquarters since ending his 13-year association with the Hawks to become the AFL's coaching innovation and education manager in January.
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The 49-year-old was consulted as part of football operations manager Steve Hocking's much-discussed memo to AFLW clubs in February regarding game style and aesthetics.
Part of Rath's job description involves him offering his expertise on how potential rule changes would impact the sport and what the possible consequences could be.
His role also includes improving coach education from grassroots to the elite level, and he has taken over the running of the level four coaching program credited with developing the next wave of AFL mentors.
Rath, an expert in performance analysis and biomechanics who has studied other sports extensively, was part of an AFL game analysis committee last year while still at Hawthorn.
"I have a foot in the door in that space – in trying to understand where the game is at – and Steve was very keen for me to be a part of that process," Rath told AFL.com.au.
"Hock's very keen, as he's already shown, to have people from club land having more influence in here, which is a good thing.
"The game itself is a complex system and it's really hard to predict where complex systems will be in two years, let alone five years, but what we do know is there will be change and we do know that change can be really rapid."
Rath said several factors beyond AFL House could influence the sport's direction, including player development, coaching tactics and interpretations, and even societal priorities, such as the focus on concussion.
"We are a really inquisitive code by nature and because we're not an international sport, in the true sense, we look outside a lot," he said.
"There are other invasion sports that share a lot of common principles and the actual action of those principles is slightly different depending on the sport and there are different emphasises.
"We've looked and tried to say, 'This part of our game; we can borrow from here'."
Rath admits he became "emotional" in his outgoing presentation to the Hawks' playing group, who he shared four premierships with since joining Alastair Clarkson's team in 2004.
But the opportunity to manage the national coaching strategy was too irresistible.
Rath's arrival coincided with the launch of the coach.afl website that enables prospective coaches to complete their foundation accreditation and serves as an information tool for all coaches.
"There's a need for a curriculum that underpins all levels of coach education that has a bead running through it, which ties the coaching of the game together," he said.
"That's one of the medium-term goals.
"I saw this as an opportunity to get on board at a time when some really transformative work had begun and there was an opportunity to join that and build on it."
