New AFL season brings new rules on holding the ball, time delays and umpire abuse

We're a couple of days away from the new AFL season and everyone from teams to fans and pundits are getting pretty excited for the start of proceedings. 

As seems often the case in recent years, the new season brings a handful of changes to rules or new interpretations to the game.

But how big are this year's changes, and what impact can we expect them to have on premiership matches once the season proper gets underway?

There are two main rules that the AFL have announced changes in interpretation — holding the ball and time delay.

According to the AFL, umpires will be less lenient towards players who have had prior opportunity and do not immediately and correctly dispose of the football when tackled.

Free kicks will be awarded against players who duck their heads prior to being tackled and do not dispose of the ball correctly.

Some of the red flags for umpires will include players evading, fending, ducking, having a prior option and not taking it, being balanced and steady, or driving their head.

It's hard to get a grip on how big this one will be.

AFL captains have their say on how the 2022 season will play out, with three teams receiving unanimous backing for making the finals.

In the AFL Community Series preseason games, it appeared that umpires were paying closer attention and there were plenty of frees paid for holding the ball — particularly where players tried to get the ball away but could not manage to correctly dispose of it.

However, there was still a fair number of cases across various games where it could be argued that leniency was shown.

Clearly, the intensity of play can be expected to ratchet up further once round one begins and premiership points are on offer.

The test will be whether the umpires hold to a