Sticking to the code
TIMES are strange when footy needs a prominent player from another code to add some common sense to an increasingly hysterical argument.

Ex-players and commentators are lining up to declare former rugby league stars Karmichael Hunt (three matches into his AFL career) and Israel Folau (no matches into his AFL career) as failures at Australian football.

Enter Billy Slater, possibly the best league player in the world.

You might expect him to join the chorus of disapproval and plead for his erstwhile colleagues to return to the code they know the best.

But no, Slater injects some welcome logic.

"I applaud the courage Karmichael and Izzy have shown to go over there. They've put themselves in the firing line, so I hope they play well and prove people wrong," he told the Herald Sun.

"I think Karmichael is going OK.

"He's been copping some criticism here and there, but I find it hard that people are criticising him when he hasn't been playing the game for very long. He's playing in a side that's developing, so he's not getting a lot of help from his fellow teammates at the moment, (but) he's capable of succeeding."

Slater says it is premature to predict a return to rugby league for the two players.

"I'm not sure what Izzy will do," he said.

"I guess that's something for him to weigh up one day when his contract is up. Time will tell, but Izzy and K made the decision to go to AFL and I wish them all the best."

Coaches under investigation
Speaking of hysterical debate, Mark Thompson's departure from Geelong citing burnout has done more than spark accusations of underhand deals with Essendon and frantic checking of mobile phone records.

It seems it is one of the reasons why the AFL is funding a report into the stresses and strains that affect the men at the helm of AFL clubs.

The Age reports that the study, among other things, will look at how their work in football affects coaches' private lives.

Paul Armstrong, the AFL Coaches Association's coaching development manager, told the newspaper the investigation would consider: "What are the expectations of the clubs? What are the expectations of supporters? What type of lifestyle is it? Is there a good balance between life and work and family and social life? That's the whole basis for the research, what comes from that we'll wait and see.''

The focus of the report will be assistant coaches, with an assistant from each club questioned in detail and all 127 full-timers asked to complete a written questionnaire.

"We've decided to mainly focus on the assistant coaches because they are the next wave of senior coaches … this is like a preventative health measure,'' said Mandy Ruddock-Hudson, the La Trobe University academic who will conduct the study, said.

Dogs set the sub standard
Rodney Eade has been one of the staunchest critics of the new substitute rule, but The Australian suggests that the Bulldogs have refined their interchange processes to adapt to the new paradigm.

Players no longer run from the furthest reaches of the field to the bench, the newspaper says, and the 'cool down' walk alongside a team trainer is disappearing in favour of a rub down and a quick return to action.

The Australian acknowledges that the new rule appears to have reduced interchange rotations, but also suggests it may have conferred a competitive advantage to the strongest teams.

It says figures show the teams with the highest number of interchanges this season are, mostly, the sides in the eight and the top sides from last season.

"Seven of the top eight sides in the competition happen to be the highest interchanging teams - Sydney (Swans) being the exception - which, to some, suggests that the league has inadvertently created a competitive disadvantage for the weaker and younger sides, with their fewer stars and greater number of physically immature players being forced to remain on the ground longer than they once would have," The Australian reports.

In brief
Good Friday football has been hailed a success in Perth, with the West Australian reporting that 5000 fans turned out for the Subiaco-East Perth clash at Medibank Stadium.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs