THE MINIMUM kick required for a mark to be paid could be increased from 15 to 20 metres under a proposal raised at the most recent meeting of the AFL's Laws of the Game Committee.

League football operations manager Mark Evans told Fairfax Media on Thursday the possibility of raising the minimum mark distance had been one of several proposals considered at the committee's most recent meeting.

"There would have been eight or 10 topics thrown up that we said we would come back to the Laws Committee, once the season had bedded down, for a look at how the game was panning out and where we felt necessary we would take that to a consultation process with the clubs, the coaches, players," Evans said.

The proposed increase to the minimum mark distance is one of a number of the possible solutions thrown up by critics of the congestion that has dogged games over the first five rounds of this season.

AFL greats Kevin Sheedy and Leigh Matthews have been among those to support the introduction of zones on the ground, which would require a number of players from each team to be positioned in zones at stoppages.

Although the number of stoppages has increased from 62.6 last year to 65.7 this year, Evans said ball-up numbers had fallen by about three per game, with the increase of boundary throw-ins by six per game accounting for the rise in stoppages.

Meanwhile, Fairfax Media also reported that at least three club chief executives have been approached to apply for the AFL's CEO position, soon to be vacated by Andrew Demetriou,



Brendon Gale (Richmond), Brian Cook (Geelong) and Stuart Fox (Hawthorn) have reportedly been approached by the AFL as it searches for a replacement to Demetriou.

The report said two of those CEOS – it did not specify who – had agreed to take part in the AFL's preliminary interviews, which began last week.

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