Who wants to borrow a ruckman? Dimma backs player loan system
Damien Hardwick wants the AFL to consider a temporary loan system for players to swap clubsBy Callum Twomey
afl.com.au
7 April 2021RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick has proposed a loan system for players to swap clubs during the season as Gold Coast's ruck crisis forces the Suns to search from within their ranks to fill the void.
The Suns will be without skipper Jarrod Witts for the rest of the season after his anterior cruciate ligament tear, meaning they don't have a fit recognised ruckman on their list.
They will need to wait until the mid-season draft in June to add a ready-made replacement, but the Tigers coach said he supported a loan arrangement that would see clubs be able to swap players for short periods if they filled a specific need.
He threw up first-year 206cm Richmond ruckman Samson Ryan as an example of a player who could benefit from a loan system.
"Anything that gives a young player an opportunity to play the game, I love," Hardwick said on Wednesday.
"We've got a young kid by the name of Samson Ryan that we'd love to loan them. At the end of the day this kid – we're really excited about what he's going to bring – but we've got (Callum) Coleman-Jones, we've got Mabior Chol, we've got Samson.
"So he's sitting there playing forward in VFL footy. Not that I'd like to give them Samson if he's playing against us, but anything that gives a player the opportunity to play at AFL [level] we should look at, absolutely."
A loaning model has existed in soccer competitions for some time around the world and also in the NRL.
The AFL last year proposed a rolling 'waiver'-type system after each of the first three months of the season instead of a mid-season draft where clubs could sign replacements, but it was met with opposition from clubs who indicated they didn't have the resources to cover it.
https://www.afl.com.au/news/579130/who-wants-to-borrow-a-ruckman-dimma-backs-player-loan-system
