By Jon Pierik
AFL clubs have been presented with three options next season, in a bid to settle debate over the contentious medical substitute.
The AFL, now seeking a replacement for football operations boss Brad Scott, surveyed clubs during grand final week and confirmed on Saturday it had received feedback, but a decision has yet to be made.
Club were given three options - retain the current system of four men on the bench plus a medical substitute, have a pure five-man bench, or return to the model used between seasons 2011 and 2015, but this time with four men plus a substitute, with the latter to be used at any time for any reason.
Swans forward Sam Reid was subbed off for injury in the preliminary final against Collingwood, but returned a week later to play in the grand final.Credit: Getty
The possibility of an extra AFL round next season and a need to ease player management loads have clubs open to a five-man interchange bench.
The debate comes after there were suggestions teams had exploited a loophole in the current system, with Port Adelaide one of the clubs under the spotlight early last season when substituted players returned the following week three times in the opening seven rounds.
AFL rules state the substitute can be activated during games if the club doctor has “reasonably determined” an injured player will miss 12 days. However, if the player heals over the ensuing days, that player can play the following weekend, provided the club has sent an updated medical report.
That happened more than a dozen times early in the season, and continued throughout, suggesting players weren’t always seriously injured, and the rule was being used to allow a player with fresh legs to take to the field late in a game.
Swans forward Sam Reid was subbed out of the preliminary final against Collingwood with a groin issue, but played in the grand final, where he was subbed off again - the Swans admitting they had erred in selecting him for the showcase event.
That the AFL is considering following the NRL’s version of a “magic round”, a move that would add an extra week to the season, and could add $1 million to each club’s coffers, has clubs seriously considering pushing for a full five-man bench to ease player workload. However, the AFL says this extra game would be off-set by losing a pre-season practice match.
“There is a feeling clubs are leaning towards a five-man interchange,” said one club source.
James Jordon is a Melbourne premiership player but did not take to the field as the medical substitute in the 2021 grand final.Credit: Getty Images
A five-man bench would no longer mean a player faces the possibility - or does not - take to the field, as James Jordon famously did in Melbourne’s 2021 winning grand final. A substitute who sat for an entire senior game would often play in the VFL the following day if the schedule worked out, but that wasn’t always the case.
Another Demon, Toby Bedford, started as the medical sub in 10 of his 16 games this season. He was recently traded to Greater Western Sydney.
“It would also allow greater management of players, as many are often carrying something,” another club source said.
If the medical substitute was eliminated, clubs also say it would ease the pressure on match-day doctors, who are under the pump to make a call on whether an injured player can return to the field, particularly if it’s late in the game.
“It would support the medical team, as there is a lot of external pressure on medical calls,” one club source said.
Clubs say in terms of concussion, it would not change things, for if a player has had a head knock and fails to pass protocols, that player won’t return to the field.
Concussed players will continue to sit out a mandatory 12-day recovery period, although concussion campaigners Peter Jess and professor Alan Pearce, a neurophysiologist, continue to push for a four-week lay-off.
A fifth interchange or a non-medical sub would, however, likely influence selection, for teams, as one club pointed out, would have greater encouragement to field two specialist ruckmen, without having to worry about a lack of run on the bench.
The latest incarnation of the medical substitute was introduced ahead of the 2021 season, in a bid to strengthen protocols around concussions.
Green-reaper: Players, including Patrick Dangerfield, were glad when the green-vested substitute was abolished after the 2015 season.Credit: The Age
However, between 2011-15, the interchange was reduced from four players to three, but there was also a substitute player. This substitute was allowed to be injected at any time – a feature of the game that proved unpopular with players and supporters.
It had been introduced to help improve parity at a time when the number of interchanges were spiking, but a cap on rotations come 2014 reduced the need for a substitute if one team had injuries.
The league’s competition committee last year heard a suggestion to allow clubs to use a sub as they wished after three-quarter-time, while Collingwood coach Craig McRae added his own wrinkle this year, proposing a team be allowed to use their substitute once the other team had.
“I just wonder whether we could shift and change the rule slightly where if the opposition has activated there’s then you’ve got a bit of an open slather or there’s less guidelines attached to it, so there’s no competitive advantage potentially,” McRae said.
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