The AFL's New Target: The Interchange Bench

[laughingnome]

It's no secret that there are those at AFL House that are worried about the amount of interchanges taking place during a game. While he admits that it was a hot night with an extended bench, Gieschen feels that the Saints/Magpies game involved the bench too much. The sides made a record 282 interchanges during the game, Collingwood 145 and St Kilda 137.

Does somthing need to be done to curb the influence of the bench, or do you see the increased use as the game evolving of it's own natural accord that should continue unabated? And if the rules need to be changed, then what?

I for one would like to see a test whereby the bench is kept at four players, but one or two of them are named as substitutes. That is, when one of these players enters the game another player must leave permanently, though the new player can be rotated off the bench with the remaining 2 or 3 players. I think that leaves the bench large enough to accomodate injury during play but should reduce the amount of changes as the bench will be essentially decreased: 20 or 21 players instead of 22. I say 'test' because until it's used in a game scenario I'm unsure of how it would work.

[dimelb]

OK, they're concerned. But so am I, about the amount of interference and fiddling with the rules that has gone on over the last few seasons. Let's leave it alone and see how it evolves before jumping in with further rule changes before we know how the trend develops.

[Lucky Knickers]

So, rules designed to speed up the game are now leading to concerns it is too fast and too brutal so we will mess with players and make it harder for them to play the game as they define?
It seems logical to extend the bench to me.