LET THE game be, is the advice from Port Adelaide midfield manager Michael Voss, who is cautioning the football world against a preoccupation with congestion in the modern game.
With the Power one of the League leaders for stoppages in 2015, Voss is well placed to comment on the game's sometimes suffocating congestion.
Only Fremantle averages more stoppages a game (30.7), with Port hot on its heels (30.6).
Voss said time was required to allow any issues to sort themselves out rather than seeing the AFL swoop in to try to legislate change.
"I hear stories of one era and another era – was it better watching footy then or watching footy now?," Voss said.
"Here's the facts: the facts are that there are terrible games in every single era, and you'd say in every single week of any time that I've ever watched football.
"When we go forward and we make these decisions let's make them … [when] we've got all the evidence in front of us and we can be educated.
"Let's not chase it; coaches are looking at this game for hours and hours on end, pulling it apart, we're seeing where the advantages can lie, and when you have that many coaches looking at the game and how you can manipulate space then you've got to go forward with just a little bit of [caution].
"The game has a great way of being able to evolve … we've gone to a sub, now we're talking about not having a sub, so have we gone forwards or have we gone backwards?"
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Evans wants to stop the stoppages
The AFL's general manager of football operations Mark Evans has questioned the direction of the game under the current crop of coaching panels across the competition's 18 clubs.
Evans was critical of what he said was a trend towards defensive football halfway through the current season, and that his current agenda is to reduce stoppage numbers.
Such radical suggestions include reducing the number of players on the field and zoning at stoppages some of the ideas being considered.
"I think what we've seen over the past six or seven weeks is a rise in stoppages and a rise in boundary line play where I think coaches have become a little bit more afraid of directing the traffic inboard," Evans told Melbourne radio 3AW.
"The question for me in talking to some of these coaches is when you took [the game] on and you saw you were actually kicking more goals out of that, but you were possibly giving up some more goals, why have you now constricted?
"Is it on our agenda to try and reduce stoppages and to try and spread play out? Yes it is.
"What are the levers we can pull? Interchange cap has been thrown up as one of those … it might be a combination of everything."
Fans say: Don't change the rules
Supporters of the game have been typically against rule changes from season-to-season.
Data obtained by portadelaidefc.com.au through its BIG PORT SURVEY found the club's supporters are dead against rule changes season-to-season.
A representative sample of members showed future - and previous - rule changes are unpopular, among them:
72.14 per cent of fans believe the substitute - introduced in 2011 - should be abolished.
50.11% say the rotations cap - currently at 120 per team - should not be changed in 2016, with 23.28% calling for a decrease in rotations.
67.62 per cent call for four players to be reinstated to the interchange bench, although 18% would like to see an extra player - to five - to make a 23-man playing team.
76.89 per cent - more than three-in-four fans - believe there are too many rule changes season-to-season.
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