![The centre bounce has become a point of contention.](/web/20170415093306im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/e/c/n/b/image.related.landscape.460x307.gvla6v.png/1492158310906.jpg)
AFL v umpires in battle of the bounce
The showdown looming between the AFL and its umpires over the future of the bounce is all the more staggering when you consider the game's bosses claim they never saw it coming.
Caroline Wilson has been chief football writer for The Age since 1999. She was the first woman to cover Australian Rules football on a full-time basis and the first woman to win the AFL's gold media award. She has won the AFL Players' Association's football writer of the year (1999) and the AFL Media Association's most outstanding football writer and most outstanding feature writer (2000, 2003, 2005). In 2014 she won the Melbourne Press Club's Graham Perkin award as Australian journalist of the year. She also won a MPC Quill Award in 2003.
The showdown looming between the AFL and its umpires over the future of the bounce is all the more staggering when you consider the game's bosses claim they never saw it coming.
Hawthorn are playing down the old-school tactics reportedly adopted by the team after the club's shock loss last weekend on the Gold Coast.
A raft of punitive measures including lifetime bans for racially abusive football supporters will be debated at the AFL Commission table next week as the game looks to up the ante in its fight against racism.
AFL players would get a pay rise this year of almost 25 per cent after the league put forward a revised offer to the players union in the protracted pay talks recent days.
Any AFL player considering moving mostly for money should heed this cautionary tale, writes Caroline Wilson.
Gary Ablett's behaviour says much about his difficult relationship with the Suns - and also his too often poor attitude.
The AFL's Peter Schwab has admitted the umpires erred in awarding the Bulldogs' Tom Boyd a free kick in front of goal last Friday night.
These are trying times for Hawthorn. So many good people have left the club in search of bigger or more challenging roles and left behind is a four-time premiership coach in need of a firm hand and some serious off-field leadership.
Gold Coast's new boss Mark Evans has told embattled coach Rodney Eade he's "here to help".
Broadcaster misgivings undermined Gillon McLachlan's push for a twilight grand final, but leaving the future open lays the foundations for further public soul-searching.
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