THE 'TORP' is back and shapes as a key weapon for teams trying to escape opposition zones, according to AFL football operations manager Steve Hocking.
At a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, Hocking was asked whether he had any concerns about Richmond's ability to lock teams inside its forward half during its run to last year's premiership.
The Tigers were ranked No.2 in the competition in 2017 for time in forward half – Port Adelaide was No.1 – a statistic that has become an increasingly reliable indicator of a team's on-field fortunes.
In 2015, a team that kept the ball inside its forward 50 for the majority of the game won 65 per cent of the time. That figure grew to 70 per cent in 2016 and to 71 per cent last season, according to Champion Data.
Despite this trend, Hocking said he had seen evidence during this year's JLT Community Series that teams locked inside their forward halves were starting to find ways through opposition zones.
"I've already seen [evolution] around that. If you watch some of the JLT, there is clearly some stuff going on with clubs where they're trying to stretch the ground out," Hocking said.
"I don't think I've ever seen so many torpedoes in games than (I did) during the JLT series – it was back in vogue.
"I think we'll see players like (Dustin) Martin, (Nat) Fyfe, (David) Mundy and (Patrick) Dangerfield playing forward more.
"It will be really interesting to see how the clubs adapt. (But) for us to sit here in January and February and try to make decisions on that I'm not sure that we should be jumping on that. I think we just need to wait and see how it plays out."
Hocking said stricter enforcement of the protected zone around the mark (eight to 10 metres) would also help clubs escape their back half, while League stakeholder and engagement manager James Podsiadly said clubs had also had success in this regard by encouraging players to run past for handball receives.
The statistics from the JLT series support Hocking's view, with the team that led time in forward half winning just 61 per cent of the time.
Playing and coaching great Leigh Matthews proposed implementing zones at centre bounces as a possible solution to congestion in a column with News Corp on Wednesday.
The model Matthews suggested involved requiring a team to start three players within 25m from goal, another three players inside its forward 50 and its two wingman on the side of the centre square.
Hocking had not read Matthews' column and said zones were "on a watch list with about 100 other things".
The League football chief then gave an insight into his long-term vision for game.
"I would like to see a game that's really pure. When I talk about pure, I love going to the football and watching the elite players play to the best of their ability and take the game on," he said.
"So some of the stuff that we've already worked through, certainly during the JLT, is about trying to free the players so they're instinctive in their decision-making, that they have a real love for the game and they're not becoming robots in the way they play.
"For me, it's not necessarily about changing the rules and implementing zones, it's about understanding what the coaches are trying to do and where they're trying to take the game."
Hocking also announced:
- Field umpires would be told which games they were officiating three weeks in advance this season, where they had been previously told, like players, on the Thursday before a game. In that three-week block, umpires will be part of the same three-person group, an innovation designed to promote stability and synergy.
- After appointing former Hawthorn biomechanist and performance analyst David Rath earlier this year, the AFL is close to appointing another club-based game analyst.
