After Sunday afternoons draw between North Melbourne and the Richmond Football Club, Tigers “caretaker” coach Jade Rawlings called for extra time to be introduced into the home and away season to decide the outcome of drawn matches.
Yesterday Richmond blew a 43 point lead in the third quarter to draw with the Kangaroos at the MCG.
Injured Richmond veteran Matthew Richardson has supported Rawlings request to introduce extra time in draws to change the feelings felt by the team post match.
Richo told a radio station that when he walked into the rooms after the Sunday clash, it was a shocking feeling, and that players felt very low. He then thought to himself, whether results such as these can be decided with an extra 5 minutes or so.
Rawlings said the result of the match felt like a loss and extra time should be called to split teams. He suggested either 2 minutes kicking each way, or the first team to score to decide the result, saying it would be “gold”. He feels as a coach he would rather feel disappointed for losing, or pleased with a win, rather than feeling nothing with the draw.
North Melbourne’s “caretaker” coach Darren Crocker also said that the draw felt like a loss to his team, especially because in consecutive weeks the Roos have only lost by narrow margins. Crocker said “There’s not much joy in draws, it’s a pretty empty feeling”. Both rival caretakers believe the rules need to be looked into.
On Monday the AFL rejected the call for “extra time” in the wake of the draw between North Melbourne and Richmond. The AFL believes that calls like this will always be brought up when draws occur. They also said even though extra time was used in finals, to ensure the grand final date was not altered, it would not be brought into the regular 22 Rounds.
Some opinions on the issue are that:
- If there was already extra time added, Richmond would have lost the match, so the game result was better for them.
- If it is first score wins, a strong breeze would easily help the team kicking in that direction.
- Extra time e.g. 5 minutes each end- so the breeze, if there is one, will apply to both teams
- Many supporters enjoy the thrilling finishes of matches
So what are your thoughts?
Should extra time be introduced into the Home and Away Season?
If yes, in what way and why?
If no, why not?
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