AFL could scrap substitute ruleCaroline Wilson
The Age
February 26, 2015The contentious substitute rule could be removed by the end of 2015 as part of an AFL push to simplify and streamline interchange rotations.
League football boss Mark Evans has given his strongest indication the system, which has provoked strong protests from most AFL coaches, could go should the commission, as predicted, move to reduce the cap on interchange rotations from 120 to between 80 and 100 per game.
Pointing out the coaches' vocal opposition to the implementation of the substitute rule to league chief Gillon McLachlan in 2014, Evans said a decrease in rotations would mean there was less demand for a sub and that the game could return to a four-man interchange bench.
In a wide-ranging briefing on football reforms on the eve of the 2015 season Evans revealed:
* The game was monitoring new US goal review technology trials involving radio frequency chips inserted in balls linked to goal barcodes;
* New goal cameras would be set up at the Adelaide Oval and Subiaco to speed up goal reviews;
* The AFL would trial new head trauma assessment forms during NAB Challenge games in a bid to identify a clearer concussion diagnosis
*A pitch to join forces with the US's National Football League in up to five concussion research programs had been rejected by the NFL, leaving the AFL determined to focus on more specific concussion research involving better treatment and care for athletes.
Detailing the AFL's holding the ball rule reforms and the simplified match review panel and tribunal process, Evans said he was confident the new system would prove less frustrating for fans and "pass the smell test".
Evans singled out the two-match suspension handed out last season to Richmond's Rhyce Conca as one lenient decision which should have been referred directly to the tribunal.
Evans conceded the AFL should have intervened on that occasion.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-could-scrap-substitute-rule-20150224-13nrzw.html
