The AFL Commission provides this Charter for the Laws of the Game Committee and associated stakeholders as a nice glossy document that most people probably won’t read.

That said, it feels nice to have a document that the AFL can refer to whenever the Laws of the Game Committee float something bizarre like ‘zones’ or ‘incorrect disposal.’

CHARTER OBJECTIVES

1. Have a charter so we can say we have a charter
2. Give something to the media today
3. Stop some of the truly crazy ideas ex-players and coaches come up with

FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL

A number of fundamental elements of Australian Football have been shaped over the course of the ongoing 150-year evolution of the game. These are protected by the charter:

• Constant and pointless rule tinkering
• Awful haircuts
• The ASADA investigation
• The ‘death of the bump’ every single year
• Dustin Fletcher
• Something always ‘ruining or destroying our great game’
• Inane commentary
• Nightclub patronage
• Bizarre and inconsistent MRP and Tribunal decisions
• Extracting as much money from fans as possible
• Standard Definition TV coverage
• Awful pre-season jumpers

Each of these elements is fundamental to the fabric of our game, unless of course we decide to change them at some point.

This charter will inform the decisions of the Laws of the Game Committee, which under the charter must be made up of the following:

• Some AFL executives so we retain control
• An ex-player or coach who has lost their love of the game, but they can’t just sit around at home all day
• One of those weird people who analyses all the statistics of football like they’re trying to crack the enigma code
• The head of umpiring so that they point out how impossible to enforce most of the ideas raised are

If you have any feedback on the charter, the AFL encourages you to tweet about it all the time to your thirteen followers.

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