Essendon assistant coach Robert Shaw says the rule-makers should let the game evolve for the good of football. Shaw was expanding on comments he made during Sunday night's Bomber Radio program in relation to the increased use of the flooding tactic. ""People at AFL lunches shouldn't put down their glass of red during the first quarter, wander outside, watch a few minutes and say they didn't like what they saw and that they will form a sub-committee to change it,"" Shaw said. ""Coaches will get better, the game will evolve and be better for it.""

""I just think there have been some knee-jerk reactions to the way the game is being played - reactions that have come from people who don't have an intimate understanding of the way the game has developed,"" Shaw said. ""The game improves because the coaches and players improve, not because someone forms a sub-committee.""

Shaw said he didn't have the slightest problem with the flooding tactic. ""Everyone talks about flooding but I honestly haven't got a problem with it. It forces us to be better coaches and that will ultimately take the game to another level,"" he said. ""I don't think enough people, apart from senior coaches and their match committees, understand that the game has evolved enormously.""

Shaw even went as far as to say there were some positives out of the flooding tactic. ""Without flooding we might not have seen much of Stuart Dew's great kicking skills and Fabian Francis has brought back the torpedo - you can't tell me that is bad for football.""