Time for a ball re-design?

[Zelezny Chucks]

Not saying the game can't evolve it will organically but, if you look at all the things about today's game that people dislike, it has generally come about due to outside intervention and not ebbs and flows of tactics/trends.

Change for the sake of change is what makes a local league more entertaining to watch these days than the sport at the highest level and that is a crying shame.

[bennymacca]

Think it's a long bow to draw to compare this argument with politics or general engineering. Obviously innovation is a good thing but I can guarantee you that improvements that were made to the Model T were done with a goal in mind. i.e. make it faster, safer, more durable.

If you can honestly come up with a good reason to improve the ball by all means do it but I fail to see why something needs to change if there isn't and end goal in mind for it.

Kicking the ball longer would completely change the way the game is played, do we then decide that bigger ovals are needed to play on?

As an example, the decision to make all head high contact awarded, or in some cases maybe we should say "rewarded", with a free kick probably (I can't be @rsed finding stats) increased the incidences of head high contact due to players manipulating the rule to their advantage. It could then be argued that this had a flow on effect to the laughable situation we are now in when people who are genuinely contesting the ball are getting rubbed out for incidental contact as another way the powers that be are influencing the game when their initial attempt actually exacerbated the problem.

I think the only one that would genuinely improve the game would be a completely waterproof ball to make wet weather footy a better spectactle and probable save some cash in increasing durability of a ball. I honestly think if Sherrin had the ability to do this without changing the grip or other properties of the ball they would have!

I get your point about innovation being a good thing in general but I don't think you can apply it with a blanket rule to all situations.

Thanks for giving me a topic to rant on about I have been bored as **** at work this arvo.

you came up with most of the reasons already - more durable, easier to kick, kick further, consistency of distance, easier to see on TV, etc etc etc

[Zelezny Chucks]

So it doesn't need a re-design just subtle improvements which I am sure they have been doing all along!

By the way, I disagree with make it easier to kick further.

[bennymacca]

Ever tried to kick a waterlogged sherrin? Can't kick it anywhere near as far. So waterproofing let's you kick it further for longer etc

[Zelezny Chucks]

Ever tried to kick a waterlogged sherrin? Can't kick it anywhere near as far. So waterproofing let's you kick it further for longer etc

I'm done, you are missing my point.

[tigerpie]

Whats with everyone wanting to make the game easier to play?

Its why we love it because its not easy to play.
Why not make the goals wider so its easier to kick them.
Make the grounds smaller and have zones so we dont have to be so fit.

About the only thing that has changed with the ball in 25 years is the consistancy in quality.

Leave the game alone FFS!

[Booney]

How did this get to 5 pages?

I haven't read any of it.....Sherrin's work fine, it's the people kicking it that are broken.