Sub or Extended Bench?

[SwansWay]

This has been a pet peeve of mine since 2011. It wasn’t fair when debutants were named as subs and never took to the field. The record books will make it seem like they had zero possessions in their “debuts.” I always thought the AFL likes to create convoluted versions of what could be simple straight forward common sense solutions but instead they tinker and vacillate like a bloated bureaucracy.

Does it annoy anybody else that each week our coaches have to scramble to figure out who to make the sub? And it can’t be the same player too often so they face being dropped to get match fitness when otherwise they didn’t deserve to be. It gives me a headache seeing players listed as omitted because the sun is a last minute addition.

Here’s a rundown of changes since the 1990s. It’s farcical when you look at it from 2011 onwards.

1998 – the introduction of a fourth interchange
2011 – the replacement of four interchanges with three interchanges and a substitute
2013 – the introduction of forced interchange for concussed players, with the provision for temporary activation of the substitute while a concussion test is conducted
2014 – the addition of an interchange cap, limiting teams to 120 interchanges per game
2016 – the return to four interchanges without a substitute, reduction of the interchange cap to 90 per game[32]
2021 – the reduction of the interchange cap to 75 a game,[1] and introduction of a medical substitute as a fifth bench player.[9]
2023 – the changing of the medical substitute to a general substitute.

[David]

Five interchange players, please. I can't believe they managed to find a way to backdoor the old sub rule back in after (justifiably) getting rid of it just seven years ago.

Not a massive fan of the interchange caps either, tbh. Have a feeling North fans might agree...

[stui magpie]

I don't mind the sub rule. 4 interchange is enough, having one spare who can come on in case of injury or used as a tactical sub with the playing coming off staying off for the game is fine with me.

[magpieazza]

Very unfair on Norf last week and it just takes away from the sentiment of the game. Let the players play...dont let red tape dictate the game.

Solution would be to penalise the next weeks interchange amount by a factor of however much it takes to hurt and for every
interchange infraction you make the official on all sides get notified and penalties increase two fold for every interchange extra. ie if you go over
the limit by one you get penalised 10 the next week and then 20 after that etc etc.

I dont care so much for capping the interchanges but there would have to be a limit so its not farcical...probably cap it at 100..

4 and a medical sub is fine seems to work so far

[Skids]

5 on the bench with a maximum of 25 rotations per quarter.

[BazBoy]

Like that Skids. Along my way of thinking

[Charlie Oneeye]

yes.

5 or even 6 on the bench with rotation limits.

Rotation limits keeps the strategic value of player usage, otherwise it would be mayhem blitzkrieg style game plans.

[RudeBoy]

Two on the bench, with no rotations allowed.

I'm old school.

[BHPIE]

6 on the bench , it'll make selection easier for fly

[Jezza]

Never liked the sub rule. It was first introduced off the back of our high rotation policy under Mick.

The AFL introduced interchange caps thinking it would reduce congestion as players would be too tired to get to every stoppage rather than being fresh because of the constant rotations.

I get the impression Fly is frustrated by it as well. He's needed to have conversations with players such as Ginnivan clearly emphasising they weren't being omitted even if the team changes said so, but rather they were being used as tactical subs. I'm sure the same would apply to WHE today.

[BazBoy]

If they are persisting with 18 plus 4 + sub
Just call it 18 plus 5

[swoop42]

I didn't like going from a starting team of 22 to 21+1 under the old sub rule because it was a backwards move and you felt as a fan you were being robbed of witnessing one of your players (often young) take to the field each game.

With 22+1 however the +1 feels like a bonus and a good way of managing a veteran or exposing a rookie to senior level.

Importantly it also helps maintain the integrity of why it was introduced in the first place and that's to aid a side who loses a player to injury early in the game.

Make it 5 on the bench then how long before coaches decry how they were disadvantaged due to injuries and want the option of a 24th player as medical substitute?

Reckon the AFL made the correct call with how they've implemented the addition of a 23rd man.

[shawthing]

Make is a six bench and get rid of the sub. Nice to have an even 24 players in the game. That also allows for injury contingencies.

[scoobydoo]

AFL polled all coaches at start of season. Sub rule won.
Why I couldn’t tell you.

P.S why are we polling? Not gonna chang the rule are they?🤣

[magpieazza]

A real interesting subject.
I felt today the sub rule worked bc Sidey came off early and a sub was used. (WHE ) Meaning that one club wasnt disadvantaged with player fatigue.

However if we had 5 straight interchanges on the bench ( with no sub ) then we would have been slightly penalised with Norf being able to use more fresher legs.
albeit with the same amount of rotations but they could spread the fatigue over one extra player.

Basically thats it!! So on that basis, I can see why the sub rule has been implemented.
Injuries do play a big part in our game and anything that can minimise the disadvantage when a player gets injured makes sense to me.