Greater Western Victoria Rebels coach Marc Greig is a man who has coached at VFL level in recent years and now coaches in the TAC Cup, which uses the anti-density rule to reduce the mass of numbers we often see at the top level.

The anti-density rule means at any stoppage or kick-in, teams are required to ensure that a least five players remain inside their forward half with two of those five players required to be inside the 50-metre arc.

Greig said having transitioned from VFL to TAC Cup he had definitely seen a big difference in the style and look of the game.

“It does keep the play open,” Greig said.

“You’re always a chance to score one-on-one and it’s hard to stop momentum because you can’t just sit men behind the ball.

“It certainly brings a bit of excitement to the game.

“The majority of teams these days would have most of their players in that half the ground at most back 50 stoppages. I did that at VFL level, because you are trying to defend and stop the opposition scoring so the more numbers you can have around the ball the harder it is for the opposition to score.

“I’ve enjoyed it...it’s something I’ve been happy to be a part of and learn about.

“There’s still a big element of how you do defend...it’s about trying to coach the boys to be better one-on-one players rather than that team defence.”

Greig said he did not have a strong view on whether it was a matter of altering interchange rotations, zoning, starting positions or any of the number of ideas that have been thrown around. Nonetheless, he said pre-season competitions should be used to trial potential rule changes and said he still enjoyed watching the modern game.

“Definitely the pre-season games should be used to trial a few things.

“It’s still exciting to watch I think.

“But it depends what the powers to be want the game to look like.”