Shorter matches and less players?A former chairman of the AFL Rules Committee has endorsed a dramatic cut in game time and slashing of on-field player numbers to ease the biggest blight in footy - congestion.Adrian Anderson, formerly the AFLs football operations boss for nine years, said he supported a push to make matches shorter by 25 per cent and reducing player numbers from 18 to 16, suggestions made recently by both Chris Judd and Geelong coach Chris Scott.During Andersons tenure, he led the Rules Committee in its boldest assault on congestion, but fears it continues to affect the aesthetics of the game.Congestion is something that really needs to be a continual focus. Its the biggest blight on our game, Anderson told ESPN.You could reduce game time if you were going to reduce numbers on the field because it would also have the effect of making the players more tired and the game would open up.Theyre two suggestions that work alongside each other.I just have a feeling the games becoming more and more congested and thats something the AFL will want to keep a close eye on.Anderson, now a barrister, says the NAB Cup was the perfect platform to trial rule changes that could be adopted in the regular season.As the AFL looks to expand internationally, Anderson says a modified version of the game that could be played in confined public spaces was integral to the codes plans to go global.If you want the game to expand internationally, its very hard to do it in the traditional format of the game because not many countries have got the space to have football grounds, he said.You really need to have a version of the game to fit within the confines of a soccer or cricket field. The Hawthorn supporter doesnt think the Hawks can replicate last years premiership heroics after losing the qualifying final.Anderson feels the luck of his under-sized team may have run out.I think theyve got their work cut out from here, he said. Ive got three disappointed little boys from the age of 10 who were willing Isaacs (Smith) kick through.You cant count them out, but I think the odds are against them, particularly given theyre a small team against their opponents without Roughead, Hale and Lake.Players on the moveThe Western Bulldogs out-of-contract big man, Tom Campbell, shapes as a mouth-watering prospect for the West Coast Eagles as the club tries to bolster its injury-ravaged ruck stocks.Campbell, regarded as the Western Bulldogs premier ruckman earlier this year, is believed to be unsure of his playing future at the kennel, as he spent a lengthy stint on the sidelines this year and watched as the partnership of Jordan Roughead and Tom Boyd flourished.Campbell played nine games before a foot injury derailed what was becoming a career-best season. The 24-year-old is currently playing with the clubs VFL affiliate Footscray, which will play ladder leaders Collingwood in this weeks preliminary final.Campbell has been offered a deal to remain at Whitten Oval but is noncommittal, due to insecurity of his position in the side.The Eagles will be without premier tall Nic Naitanui for much of next season as he recovers from a knee reconstruction. Back-up ruckman Scott Lycett could also miss the bulk of 2017 after aggravating a knee injury against the Bulldogs.Campbell, plucked as a mature-age recruit in the 2011 rookie draft, would joust with either Lycett or Jonathan Giles for the Eagles ruck mantle.Also, retired North Melbourne ruckman Drew Petrie could be lured to the Eagles due to his close relationship with former teammate and coach Adam Simpson.ESPN understands the Eagles spoke to the 33-year-old before the Kangaroos 62-point loss to Adelaide.Petrie, like games record holder Brent Harvey, is weighing up his playing future and the prospect of squeezing another season out of his ageing body.Brad Scott to follow in Voss and Leppitschs footstepsNorth Melbourne coach Brad Scott is being tempted to return to Brisbane to help resurrect his old club.ESPN understands the Lions are making a play for Scott to coach the besieged club, despite still under contract at the Kangaroos.Should a deal be brokered, Scott will be the third consecutive former player of the Lions glory era to take charge.Scott, who played 146 games for the Lions, was a fearless leader in defence and played in the clubs 2001 and 2002 premiership teams.But injury derailed his ambitions of taking part in the historic 2003 side.Scott signed a contract extension with the Kangaroos last year, tying him to the club until the end of 2018.Will Dal Santo play on?One of Scotts out-of-favour veterans, Nick Dal Santo, has been offered an AFL lifeline but the 32-year-old ball-winning midfield is undecided whether he should continue his career at a third club.ESPN has been told a player approached Dal Santo at the end of the Kangaroos-Adelaide final and asked: Should I be congratulating you on a wonderful career or should I be calling you John Farnham?Dal Santo responded by saying he had been offered a deal, but is yet to decide to play a 16th season.Dal Santo, who has played 322 games at St Kilda and the Roos, was one of four North Melbourne veterans to be sensationally delisted in a radical player overhaul of the clubs ageing list.Patrick Dangerfield: The clanger kingAfter his stellar debut season in the blue-and-white hoops, which culminated on Tuesday with his runaway win in the AFLPAs Most Valuable Player Award, Geelongs Paddy Dangerfield only has to go near the ball these days before commentators start drooling and tripping over themselves in search of new superlatives.Dangerfield had a good match against Hawthorn last Friday night but he was far from his best, racking up six clangers, including a couple of kicks that sailed into the crowd, and a disposal efficiency rating that hovered somewhere around 40%.Yet some pundits, including the FoxSports team and the Herald Suns Sam Landsberger, somehow judged him best afield.As we say, hes in that rarefied space now where he doesnt have to do an awful lot in a match before people fall in a swoon, positively dazzled by his magnificence.The two coaches in that qualifying final, Alastair Clarkson and Chris Scott, were less starstruck when awarding their votes for the inaugural Gary Ayres Medal for best player in the finals. They felt Joel Selwood was best on the ground, awarding him eight of a possible 10 votes. Dangerfield scored a lone vote, presumably from Scott.Not that this will worry Dangerfield one jot. Hell now just have to content himself with the AFLPA Award (which he won by the length of a Ben Graham torpedo), quite possibly the Brownlow Medal and perhaps also the Norm Smith Medal for grand final best afield.Oddly, the great Danger lies in fifth place in the Clanger category this season (with 87), some way behind Clanger King, Richmonds Dustin Martin, on 113.Just imagine if he could kick straight ....Time for some rules to be reviewedStand by for a raft of rule reviews in the off-season, as small trends which have crept into the game in recent seasons threaten to become major issues.The deliberate out-of-bounds rule is set to be looked at and tightened up because it has confused players, coaches, fans and commentators alike. No rule has such a large grey area and asking umpires to adjudicate on whether players mean to deliberately take the ball out of play has proved a ridiculously big ask. Impossible even.Another one to be reviewed is an Alastair Clarkson favourite: shepherding on the mark. That is, a player from Team A will stand next to a player from Team B who is on the mark and prevent him from intercepting a second Team A player about to play on from a free kick or mark.Its not a good look - too many players are getting taken out when they dont expect it - so the practice will be reviewed.The 10-metre exclusion zone around players who have taken a mark or won a free kick will be fine-tuned because too many innocent bystanders, who were not affecting play in any way, were getting slugged by umpires with 50-metre penalties.And stomach punches, of the sort which Luke Hodge (among others) has become so adept, will also be looked at. What was an occasional incident a few years ago has become a blight on the game - so much so that, anecdotally, it is creeping into junior footy.Which is hardly surprising: if under-age footballers see Hodge, Firrito, Lewis, and co get away unpunished with these sly punches, why wouldnt they adopt the same niggle?So the Rules of the Game committee will examine ways to clamp down hard on this growing trend.Is the pre-finals bye needed?There is still much conjecture about the merits of a pre-finals bye.Some pundits, such as The Ages Caroline Wilson, remain staunch opponents of the innovation, saying it kills off momentum after the final home-and-away round, and gives codes such as the NRL a major free-kick in September. But others, such as FoxFootys Gerard Whateley, is a convert - having earlier expressed his doubts about the value of such a move.Whateley said he was forced to change his mind after witnessing the first weekend of finals, and the quality of the four contests on show.But if the bye does remain in place in 2017, expect the week to be spiced up with the addition of a major footy event, such as the Brownlow Medal, which has traditionally been a fixture on the Monday night of Grand Final week.Random stats of the week:1345 - Total number of games played by Kangaroos quartet Brent Harvey, Nick Dal Santo, Drew Petrie and Michael Firrito - the most by four teammates in the same game (vs Adelaide last week). Which presents quite a sizeable hole for North Melbourne to fill next season.21 - Shaun Burgoyne can draw level with Martin Pike in second place in VFL/AFL history for most finals wins as a player if Hawthorn prevail over the Bulldogs on Friday. (Top of the list is Michael Tuck (26, Haw), then Martin Pike (21, Melb, Nth Melb and Brisbane), Kevin Bartlett (20, Rich), and Burgoyne (20, Pt Adel, Haw).0 - Buddy Franklin was held goalless on Saturday by Phil Davis and GWS for first time ever in a final - having previously kicked goals in each of his first 18 finals. Cheap NHL Jerseys Store . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends. Discount NHL Jerseys .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. http://www.cheapjerseysauthenticnhl.com/ . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East. Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys . But when it comes to determining if Raymond will find a place on the Leafs roster when training camp concludes in a week, well, that decision will ultimately fall to the head coach. Wholesale NHL Jerseys . Following a lopsided 5-2 loss against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, Paul MacLean told reporters that "theres a lack of focus, theres a lack of leadership and theres a lack of preparation" with his struggling team. That came on the heels of Bryan Murray taking the unusual step of going into the locker room at the Prudential Center and addressing the players himself. Batsmen get punked in the subcontinent. Big time. England, for example, spent the best part of two days watching India pile on the runs but when it was their turn, the ball began keeping low, it started turning. It caused problems even when it did nothing and went straight.Indias total of 455 seemed like a garish example of excess. Picture a solid gold super car. So why get stingy with the close catchers? Ajinkya Rahane at slip was a constant. So was a short leg. Occasionally there was a gully or a leg slip. The rest were protecting singles and boundaries.Consider the five wickets that India took in Visakhapatnam. Alastair Cook was conned by Mohammed Shami. The proud seam of a brand new SG ball was pointing towards the left of the keeper. It should have moved away. It did not. It came in off the pitch and broke the off stump in two. Englands captain would be within his rights to find the nearest coaching manual and yell, you filthy little liar. Haseeb Hameed was run-out. Ben Duckett wrapped himself up with a neat little bow for R Ashwin. Joe Root played a bad shot. And Moeen Ali was done in by less spin than he expected.All but one of those bear the mark of batsmen making mistakes and they happened because India did not give away easy runs. Only 14 balls out of Ashwins 13 overs were scored off. If thats put down to his experience and ranking as the Worlds No. 1 bowler, what explains Jayant Yadav allowing England to profit from only seven of his balls in seven overs? He is a Test debutant.Tactics, perhaps? The men India had saving singles were alert, and well placed. The bowlers were accurate enough to make the job a bit easier. And without the rotation of strike, the pressure on a batsman can seem starker than it is. Even to someone batting past a half-century, as it turned out.Roots down-the-track mow into the leg side that ended up caught off a leading edge looked quite awful. But India allowed him only nine runs in 33 balls since his mix-up with Hameed led England off course. There were other close calls as well, including an offbreak that breached his bat-pad gap. India sensed something. They brought mid-on up, and had Umesh Yadav, a goodd athlete and a fine catcher, about 20 yards from the mid-off boundary.dddddddddddd Upon seeing the miscue, he backtracked smoothly to his left and did the needful.Ashwin, the bowler, punched the air and let out a roar. He doesnt usually celebrate like that - unless it was the culmination of a plan. Its a very very different pitch to what we saw in Rajkot. Its not one of those easy-paced wickets, he said at the post-match press conference. He [Root] jabbed at one, one went through the gate. and he nicked one, almost, to short leg. So we were expecting a shot like that, and thats why we put the mid-on.It wasnt the first time Root had been starved out either. Misbah-ul-Haq had done him the same way at Lords earlier this summer.Still, where was the harm to have a few more men catching? At least, it would show the batsman who was on top. Yes, but what if Virat Kohli thought it might show something else as well? Gaps, which could be exploited to release the pressure he wanted built. Runs which would mean his spinners cannot get their rhythm right. And a momentum shift with England having a considerably long batting line-up. So, instead, he forced the opposition to take sizeable risks for singles and twos.The ploy isnt foolproof. It may not have yielded such dramatic results either had a few of the visiting batsmen shown a bit more patience. But there was a certain merit to it. Close-in fielders are most useful when the pitch is turning alarmingly and affording extra bounce. In such cases, a captain cant quite decide where inside and outside edges would go so he has to cover his bases. Things havent quite reached that stage yet in Visakhapatnam. Ashwin was beating right-handers with drift more often than he did with turn. Besides, isnt cricket notorious for fielders being put into places after edges fly through them? Not much of that happened here. Natural variation and the ball keeping low were the major problems and by tying a batsman down at one end, India made them play on Englands mind and seem considerably larger. ' ' '