The issue has been a hot topic since Hawthorn rushed 11 behinds on their way to an upset grand final victory in September.
Under the trial NAB Cup ruling, if a player rushes a behind without any pressure applied to him from the opposition, the other side gets a free kick.
If the ball was rushed between the two goal posts, the free will be taken directly in front of goal, if the ball was rushed between the goal and behind post, the kick will be taken from the boundary line.
AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said the issue had to be addressed after 13 of the 16 clubs admitted they would continue to exploit the rule if it wasn’t changed.
“The clear majority of clubs and coaches thought that deliberate rushed behinds are having a negative impact on the game and support the trial of a rule to discourage the tactic,” he said.
“The strong feedback the AFL received after the grand final was that clubs and coaches would deliberately rush more and more behinds if the rule was not changed.”
In other new rules for the NAB Cup, two substitutes will be added to the six interchange players and umpires will be able to award a 50m penalty as well as a free kick against tackling players who hold on too long after a player has disposed of the ball.
The two substitutes will have to be nominated by teams before the game and once a player is replaced by one of the substitutes he will not be allowed to return to the field.
The league has also scrapped three trial rules from last year’s NAB Cup.
This year play will not continue when the football rebounds off the goalpost, boundary umpires will not come in 10m before they toss the ball back into play and there will not be any limits on the amount of interchange moves a side can make.
However, four rules used in the 2008 NAB Cup have been to be retained.
No marks will be awarded if taken from a backwards kick in the defensive half of the ground; nine-point 'supergoals' will still be paid for a goal booted from outside 50m; umpires will continue to throw the ball up around the ground and no marks will be paid if a kick travels less than 20m.
“We received feedback from clubs that they would like us to consider making the NAB Cup as consistent as practicable with the home and away competition,” Anderson said.
Click here for the full list of changes to the Laws of the Game.
