There are pre-season games you remember for the football, and there are pre-season games you remember for the arguments that follow. Wednesday night at Ikon Park was shaping up as the former, until the AFL's new ruck rule turned it into the latter.
Carlton defeated Geelong by 15 points, 13.8 (86) to 11.5 (71), in a performance that offered genuine excitement for Blues supporters. Top-end draft pick Jagga Smith racked up 37 disposals and lit up the night as a future star in the making. Defender Jacob Weitering appears on track to return for round one. Sam Walsh, who gave supporters a brief scare when he grabbed at his lower back after a tackle, came back strongly and finished the game by dashing from the centre square to nail a goal.
But the moment everyone was talking about by Thursday morning had nothing to do with any of that.
The call that shouldn't have been
In the third quarter, Carlton ruckman Marc Pittonet was penalised for crossing the centre-square line during a ball-up contest with Geelong's Sam De Koning. On the replay, Pittonet appeared to be doing little more than getting out of the way of the high-leaping De Koning. His foot drifted over the line as he landed and tried to take the ball. De Koning, for his part, also crossed the line in mid-air and didn't get near the football.
The AFL conceded on Thursday morning that the free kick should not have been paid, and that "play on" was the correct call. Fox Footy commentator Jason Dunstall put it plainly during the broadcast.
"Now, I reckon that is incredibly unlucky. What he is basically doing is getting out of the way because De Koning is about to jump into him. All Pittonet did, in the end, was go where the ball dropped."
Former Adelaide and Geelong forward Josh Jenkins was less measured, posting on X that the decision was "comical" and would "get worse as we go."
Carlton assistant coach Ash Hansen acknowledged the challenge players face under the new laws, noting that in the heat of a contest, the fine line between legal and illegal movement is genuinely hard to manage. He said the club would seek clarity from the league, but appealed for some common sense in the way the rule is applied. "There's got to be some wriggle room where, yeah, you might give a couple up, but it's not deliberate," he said.
Injury adds another dimension to the debate
The rules controversy was compounded later in the match when Geelong forward Shannon Neale hobbled from the ground after banging knees with Pittonet at a centre bounce. The Cats insisted it was a shin knock above his guard rather than anything structural, and expected him to be fine. But the incident drew an immediate response from respected sports medic Dr Peter Larkins, who flagged concerns on social media that knee PCL injury rates, a problem that prompted ruck rule changes at the start of the 2005 season, could climb again under the new approach.
Geelong assistant James Kelly said the new rules may prompt clubs to reconsider who they send into the centre square, though he noted the Cats value the flexibility of using players who can both jump and run. Whether other clubs share that flexibility is a question that will be answered over the coming weeks.
Smith steals the show
Amid the controversy, it would be a shame to let the night's genuine highlights pass without proper recognition. Smith was extraordinary. The top-end draft pick spent time at centre bounces alongside Patrick Cripps and Walsh, used his quick feet in traffic with composure well beyond his years, and set up teammates with crisp ball use that caught the eye of everyone watching. Hansen was effusive afterward, describing Smith as the "link player" between the midfield and the forward line that modern football demands. He will make his AFL debut against Sydney next Thursday.
Harry Dean, the 2025 No.3 draft pick, also turned heads. Late in the second quarter, the teenager leapt sideways into a pack and plucked the ball from the air in a mark that drew comparisons from those old enough to remember his father, dual Carlton premiership player Peter Dean. Those comparisons will put pressure on the kid, but on Wednesday night at least, he looked more than capable of handling it.
For Geelong, Tanner Bruhn's return after missing all of last year due to a court case (all charges were dropped in November) was a positive note. He finished with 27 disposals and showed he hasn't lost a step. Max Holmes, meanwhile, continued to press his case as one of the competition's premier players.
The bigger picture
The AFL's new ruck rule is well-intentioned. Player safety is a legitimate priority, and the league has a reasonable basis for wanting to reduce the kind of collisions that caused a string of serious knee injuries more than two decades ago. Those who dismiss the rule outright should acknowledge that the underlying concern is real.
At the same time, Wednesday's events show that any rule change at the elite level requires not just good intentions but clear, consistent application. An incorrect free kick paid in a practice match matters less than one paid in a final. But the confusion among players, coaches, and commentators on the eve of round one is a signal the league needs to get its communication right before the real stakes arrive. The Fair Work Commission regularly wrestles with the challenge of new rules being applied inconsistently in their early days; sporting codes face exactly the same problem.
Carlton faces Sydney in round one. Geelong heads to the Gold Coast to take on the Suns. Both clubs will be watching the ruck contests very closely indeed, and so will everyone else across the competition. What happens next will tell us a great deal about whether this rule is ready for the season ahead.