For all the publicity surrounding looming rule changes in the AFL, one stands out as the most contentious.
It's the tweak to the stand rule - and it has clubs and umpires talking.
"That's the one to watch," one well-placed source told Zero Hanger.
Clubs are ramping up match simulation, with guest umpires, and there has been a flurry of 50m penalties paid for breaches of the new adjudication.
It will be a tough, maybe brutal, readjustment, and will no doubt come into sharper focus once clubs start playing each other.
The umpires will be red hot, and for some reason the teething problems with clubs feeling their way under the new conditions has slipped under the radar.
This season, players within five metres of a mark or free kick when it is paid (in other words inside the protected area) will have to immediately freeze and stand.
No longer can they back out, move outside the zone and guard space. Collingwood made an artform of it.
Expect the 50m penalties to flow early in the season and expect some more free-flowing footy.
Smart track watchers have noticed that under the stricter interpretation it is much easier to play give-and-go slingshot footy off half-back.
With an opponent on the mark frozen in time and unable to sag back, it is much easier for a half-back to surge past and take a sharp sideways handball. From there, it is easier to run and carry and find space.
It's a development the AFL will be happy with, as quicker ball movement is high on the wish list.
As for the other rule changes? Don't expect too much controversy.
Insiders in umpiring are adamant the new rule to stamp out shrugging will be easy to adjudicate. Play for a free and it will be deemed prior opportunity.
The last-disposal out of bounds rule, too, is being seen as a non-event.
Umpires and clubs are expected 3-4 fewer boundary throw-ins than last year.
The stand rule, though, is another matter. Stand by for controversy and maybe some early chaos.
