Barry Dick: The NRL’s six-again rule is rubbish, the AFL’s out-of-bounds rule is dumb, and both codes are driving away the fans who love them most

For Argument’s Sake with Barry Dick

Australia’s two major football codes, the AFL and the NRL, are “flying” at present with record crowds and record TV ratings which makes it ever harder to understand why they seem intent on alienating rusted-on fans.

I’ve been following rugby league since I was a boy and covered the game for many years, including a stint as rugby league editor of The Courier-Mai, so I reckon I’ve earned the right to have a say on the NRL’s “six-again” rule. In a word it’s rubbish.

For non-league people, the six-again rule, introduced in 2020 supposedly to speed the game up, allows a referee gives a team another set of six tackles because of some perceived infringement by the defending team.

Yeah, well can anyone honestly say they know what even half the six-again rulings are for?

The broadcasters try to let us know with a little tag “ruck infringement” or “inside the 10 metres – that’s not helping.

I’ve felt like throwing the remote at the TV sometimes when that “ruck infringement” thing pops up. “Ruck infringement” can cover a hundred things and you can be watching a game and see a team hit with a six-again ruling for apparently doing something that the other team did a couple of minutes before. How can it be “six again” one time and not the other?

It’s just too subjective and there’s no way referees aren’t squaring up in games when they realise, or are told, the six-again rulings are favouring one team.

And being “inside the 10” has been a penalty infringement since the 10-metre rule was introduced in 1993. It still should be. Start penalising the infringing teams when it can cost them two points. Then they might stay onside.

The whole six-again rubbish has contributed to the blow-out scores in 2026. This year the average points in an NRL game have topped 50. Defence has become that thing around the house. Half the game has become irrelevant.

For mine, that’s made the game half as good.

A mate, Bruce Isles, who is in his 70s,has followed Australian Rules all his life. Bruce is a life member of the Noosa Tigers AFL club so he knows a lot more about the game than me and I asked him to nominate the one AFL rule change he hates most.

“The out-of-bounds kick rule, without a doubt,” Bruce said.

This season, a “last disposal”  rule was introduced to the AFL, awarding a free kick against the last team to touch the ball if it goes out of bounds between the 50m attacking arcs. The rule was introduced to speed up the game and reduce the number of boundary umpire throw-ins.

“It’s dumb,” Bruce said. “It’s taken the ruck contest out of the game and that was part of the fabric (of the game).

“The other annoying thing is the over-use of the slow-mo replays. Technology is taking over and it’s taking the human element out of the game. Human errors have been part and parcel of the game forever and that’s the way it should be.”

Spot on, Bruce. That applies in rugby league, too. Football is played by humans and should be officiated by humans, not computers.

And on the ANZAC weekend, in a game between St Kilda and West Coast, it took 90 seconds for the off-field officials to overrule the on-field umpires on a goal attempt.

Incredibly, 30 seconds was wiped off the game. It didn’t matter because St Kilda beat the Eagles by plenty but 30 seconds could easily change the result of a game, even a grand final.

Imagine the outcry then.

Barry Dick was a journalist at The Courier Mail and Sunday Mail for 43 years, before retiring in 2015. Most of that time was spent on the sports desk in a variety of roles including sports editor, digital sports editor, Rugby League editor and chief Rugby League writer. While Barry was the first full-time Australian football writer for The Courier Mail in 1973, his true passion was always Rugby League and he covered a myriad of Grand Finals, State of Origins and Test matches. Barry was inducted into the Media Hall of Fame on March 27 2017.