League umpire Stuart Parry has backed a call from WAFL coaches for the competition to use Sherrin footballs instead of the traditional Burley brand.
Parry, who officiated in the 2008 WAFL grand final, said the shape of the Sherrin football was more conducive to the whistleblowers producing straight bounces and therefore fairer contests between opposing ruckmen at the stoppages.
"Sherrins are a lot easier to bounce. I've gone to the under-18s carnival and bounced Sherrins and they're a lot easier to bounce," Parry said.
"They just seem to be a bit more rounder than the Burleys, so If I was to have a preference it would be a Sherrin from a bouncing perspective."
A poll conducted by The West Australian and published in The Game liftout on Monday found that seven out of the nine league coaches preferred the Sherrin football to the Burley, which was first used in the WAFL in 1907.
However, WAFL football operations manager Clint Roberts said the league is unlikely to make a change in the near future, with the current three-year deal with manufacturers Burley Sekem running through to the end of 2011.
"We've been supported very well by Burley for a number of years and we like the idea of supporting a West Australian company to supply the footies, so at this stage we've got no plans to change," Roberts said.
A veteran of more than 100 league games, Parry also expressed concern about the increasing frequency of players 'diving' in order to win free kicks.
He said that the act of players staging for free kicks is becoming a common occurrence and is putting further pressure on umpires to make the correct decision.
"It's certainly something you don't want to see and it is creeping into the game probably a lot more in last couple of years than it had been when I started out (in 2002)," Parry said.
"That's a challenge for us and it means we need to be in good positions to be able to tell what's a legitimate free kick and what's not and certainly not have a guess just because we see a player chuck his arms back.
"That's something that's at the forefront of our minds as umpires and we need to be careful that we don't encourage it by paying free kicks for those sorts of incidents."
Parry said that handing out yellow cards, a system used in soccer to deter 'simulation', was not a path that he would like to see Australian Rules football take.
"I think if you go to ground or if you lose your feet in footy these days you're at a pretty significant disadvantage anyway so I think that's probably deterrent enough," Parry said.
"I'm not in favour of more rules, there's been enough rule changes in the last few years without adding another one for us to adjudicate."
PERTH SHAYNE HOPE
