Three rule changes the AFL should make over the summer, according to club great

Fremantle legend Paul Hasleby believes this is the time of year to mark the AFL’s major rule changes for the 2025 season and names a few rules that should be among them.

The AFL has not shied away from making changes in the summer in previous years and Hasleby is primarily looking at championship medals and the situation surrounding Brisbane ruckman Oscar McInerney.

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan revealed he handed his championship medal to the ruckman, who suffered a shoulder injury in the Preliminary Final.

Hasleby is not specific about what the exact number should be, but he believes there should be a threshold of games in a season that would qualify a player for a championship medal.

“You know what I get angry about? When everyone gets angry about things happening in the football season that are too late to change. It’s time for the AFL to make changes before we’re halfway through the year,” Hasleby said. The Run Home by SEN WA.

“As we saw with Isaac Heeney’s non-compliance, halfway through the year the rules come into play.

“I want to campaign for the AFL right now to start making some change. What we saw yesterday was Chris Fagan’s championship medal awarded to Oscar McInerney. I love this.

“Given this, I think this needs to change. It’s time. When you have a player as important as him who played 25 matches, got injured in the Preliminaries, came back in the Preliminaries and allowed him to qualify for the Grand Final.

“I’m not sure what the parameters are for that, but we can definitely get to a point where if you’ve played 15 games of the season you deserve a medal.

“It may only mean three or four more players will get it, but it means a huge amount. “I have several examples of two players suffering from this.

“At Collingwood, Taylor Adams was injured late last year and played 19 games. Guess what he did, he left. He was heartbroken.

“John Noble was the same. The Premier played 20 matches in the year and returned to the team for another season, but he turned out to be heartbroken and left.

“That’s what I’m for. If you play a certain number of games, you should be eligible for a first place medal.

“If you look at the numbers, you’re only talking about one or two extra medals per season.”

The second rule change Hasleby would like to see is to change Brownlow eligibility so that any player banned for a week or two can win the award.

“Brownlow eligibility. Let’s do this right here. “I don’t think anyone will be disturbed by this change,” he said.

“If the suspension is less than three games, I believe these players should continue to be eligible and this would ease the pressure on the Tribunal and the MRO.

“Isaac Heeney should have been eligible to win the Brownlow Medal. Because of what he did and the way penalties have changed in our game, the AFL needs to sit down and make a change here.”

Hasleby also wants an NBA-style ‘maximum contract’ to be introduced, which would put an end to the super long-term deals we have seen in the AFL in recent years.

“The third is a maximum five-year contract. I have become strong about this. “I think it’s out of control,” he said.

“The situation is not good for the clubs. They have lost all their strength, but I believe it also helps equalize.

“The reason I say that is if you have a club at the bottom who haven’t spent most of their salary cap, they can make better money than the clubs at the top.

However, when the top clubs can extend this beyond eight years, it becomes difficult for the bottom clubs to gain this advantage.

“I think this will help us see that some players choose to go to the youth teams.”

Hear the rest of Paul Hasleby’s rule change ideas below