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- Oct 14, 2005
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Having a player who can only be substituted in the event of injury is problematic, because it means that you'll have a player who may not get to play at all in that round. This is already an issue when we play on Sundays and the SANFL team plays on Saturday, because of the need to hold back a player in case of emergencies. To have a 2nd player who doesn't get a game would be a major problem.What are your thoughts on two subs? One more that can only be used if there is an injury.
I don't have a problem with reducing the number of players who can be interchanged (i.e. going from 3+1 to 2+2). Historically the interchange bench existed only as a source of injury replacements. Even during our premiership years of 97 & 98 the interchange was still only used sparingly. It's only been the last decade or so where it has been used tactically, with players rotating through the interchange every few minutes. It's hard to argue that the game has improved as a result of tactical interchanging, given the flooding & clogging that occurs as a result.
We know that the substitute rule has had a high degree of success in reducing the disadvantage suffered by teams losing a single player to injury. I would be very interested to see a study done to determine the frequency with which teams lose multiple players and the degree of disadvantage that they experience as a result, given that the interchange cap also serves to limit the disadvantage.






