AFL players fear rise in injuries after interchanges slashed

AFL Players Association president Patrick Dangerfield fears for the “health and safety” of players after the league’s decision to slash interchange rotations.

AFLPA president Patrick Dangerfield . Picture: Sarah Reed

AFL Players Association president Patrick Dangerfield fears for the “health and safety” of players after the league’s decision to slash interchange rotations as the game’s stars push for a move to 18-minute quarters next season.

The AFLPA said the vast majority of players were opposed to a cut in rotations, warning the new cap could make it harder for them to be “flexible” on other potential changes if the league made a return to 20-minute quarters at the same time.

Following the AFL’s announcement on Wednesday it was cutting interchange rotations from 90 to 75, Dangerfield said he had concerns over the potential for injuries among fatigued players coming off a testing Covid-stricken season on the road.

“Even though this season presented us with a reduced number of games it was also one of the longest seasons we had given when we started pre-season, the break in playing and training and then when ultimately the season concluded,” Dangerfield said on SEN.

“I think to go into a season next year reducing interchanges, I am a bit of a sceptic on it still, as I suspect quite a few players will be.

“It (75 rotations) will certainly fatigue players. Whether that is a good thing and it opens up the play remains to be seen.

“I think I’m wary of the potential ramifications for injuries given the season that we had this year and the … effect that may have given there won’t be a huge amount of time off for quite a number of players to be able to recover to go into a full and normal season compared to what we faced this year.

“I just do have concerns around the health and the safety of our players. The last thing we want is an increased number of injuries.

“There are teams where teams don’t use their full allocation (of rotations), but at the same time they are there for a reason.”

AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking said the league had not wanted to make a “radical” change to bench rotations in one season, so had settled on an “incremental” shift.

But Hocking said on Thursday the AFL was open to a further interchange reduction.

AFLPA’s general manager of player and stakeholder relations Brett Murphy said the players had been “broadly opposed” to a reduction in the interchange cap and feared for the impact it could have on them, especially if quarters also returned to 20 minutes next year.

“The vast majority of players are opposed to a reduction in rotations,” Murphy said.

“The change is specifically aimed at fatiguing them in order to reduce congestion and we – and they – are concerned about the impact a change like that would have on them.

“We are concerned that if we go back to 20-minute quarters, and at the same time reduce rotations, it makes it harder for us to agree to other changes which potentially benefit the game.

“The last few years, and this year in particular, the playing group has been really flexible with its willingness to do things like reduce the length of breaks between games.

“And if we go back to 20-minute quarters and reduce rotations – we have a shorter pre-season this year and we still have the threat of Covid hanging over our heads – it makes it hard for us to agree to that kind of flexibility, which I think has worked quite well.

“I think they are going to be less willing to agree to those types of things at the same time as they might be feeling a greater fatigue from the rotation cap.”

Murphy said the playing group favoured a move to 18-minute quarters next year.

“Players have indicated to us that their preference would be to reduce the length of quarters to 18 minutes,” Murphy said.

“They felt that 16 minutes was too short this year and they felt that 20 minutes was too long and that 18 minutes is a really happy medium.

“So if a change to quarter length was made, that might offset the impact of these rotation caps so we will have to wait and see what happens in regards to that.”

While the AFLPA has consulted with players over the issue of player rotations for many years, Murphy said the cut to 75 for next year had not been raised with the players or the competition committee, on which he sits, until Wednesday.

“In this particular instance, the reduction was raised with the AFL competition committee (on Wednesday) and hadn’t been previously put to that group, so it has come a bit out of the blue,” Murphy said.

“But we have been speaking to the players about this for years … and the players’ view has always been really strong that they didn’t want to see a reduction, they don’t see the benefit.

“I think Steve talked a bit yesterday that player welfare is a priority, I think it’s important that players have a say in their own welfare.

“Players have adapted well in the past to previous changes, but we will need to monitor the impact of this next year to see where it all lands.”

Herald Sun