"The bounce is unique to our game, a game like no other on the planet, an indigenous game. It gave ruck work a skill with the oval ball that sometimes went off centre and at different heights, for ruck work once was an art form of the game," Bartlett said on his SEN Radio program. "Now, they want a basketball tip-off to start our great game. Good god!"

Fairfax Media's Rohan Connolly reported on Tuesday that the AFL Umpires Association had canvassed the abolition of the bounce in negotiations with the league for a new collective bargaining agreement. Umpires are concerned about back injuries, the fairness to competing ruckmen, and the continued difficulty of finding enough umpires to officiate at the elite level.

Bartlett also claimed the move to recall bad bounces in the centre square had taken away a key element of the game.  

"We shouldn't be recalling the ball from a crooked bounce at all, which the umpires say puts pressure on them because they didn't bounce straight," he said. "It should be, if the ball goes off centre, play on, like it was until some sooked because an odd, crooked bounce gave the opposition a perceived advantage.

"Tell that to Stephen Milne, who didn't get the rub of the green in the grand final. It's an oval ball for god's sake ... We brag about having the greatest game in the world for over 100 years, now they turn it into some hybrid game for the whingers."

Former umpire Steve McBurney has backed the move to eradicate the bounce, saying football is losing umpires because of it.

"I can think of a number of umpires over the journey whose bouncing wasn't quite up to it, and even though they were excellent decision makers they didn't get a look in," he said. "We want our best decision makers out there, and having an inherent requirement of the job as being an effective bouncer does compromise the recruitment of your best decision makers."