By TALLIS MILES 

Proposed AFL rule changes have been labelled “a storm in a tea cup” and “ridiculous” by Victorian football officials after VFL clubs Coburg and Werribee completed a match trial a week ago.

The proposed rule trials have seen the AFL consider implementing zones at centre bounces with six players from each side in each of the three zones.

With larger goal squares, the AFL has said these rules will help ease congestion concerns.

However, Eastern Football League junior football manager Dyson Baker said junior development and coaching needed to be a focus before any massive changes were made.

“We need to go back to the fundamentals and focus on skill development for our juniors,” he said.

Mr Baker said EFL competitions had already made their own rule changes to ease congestion concerns at a junior level and to help speed up the game.

However, Mr Baker said the reduction of players on the field was down to sizing of suburban grounds rather than issues with the state of the game.

Glen Eira Gryphons player Stuart Carey said there were congestion issues in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA).

“Playing in Melbourne, a lot of the grounds are smaller so congestion is unavoidable and I’m not sure these changes would fix that,” he said.

Mr Carey said he enjoyed watching and playing VAFA matches with the current rules and was unsure of the impact the proposed changes would have. 

“I think the longer goal square looks ridiculous and the coaches will be able to coach against it pretty easily,” he said.

“The 6-6-6 is one rule that could keep being trialled, but I’m not really sure how much difference it would make because it is really only for centre bounces,” Mr Carey said.

In a radio interview with SEN, Coburg senior coach Leigh Adams said he didn’t think the changes were going to make a big difference but hoped for higher scoring.

“I was really 50/50, I think there needs to be some tinkering, but I don’t think there needs to be some huge overhaul,” he said.

Another trial of the larger goal square and the 6-6-6 formation was held on Saturday between Coburg and the Northern Blues at Preston City Oval.