Bartlett Wants To Dump Interchange
AFL LEGEND and rules committee veteran Kevin Bartlett has proposed scrapping the interchange system and replacing it with eight soccer-style substitutes.
Flagging serious consequences if nothing is done, Bartlett said the game is "becoming like rugby" and is being tactically "hijacked" by interchanges.
"I'm confident the game would be better without interchange, pick your best 18 and have six to eight players on the bench to cover injury and flexibility for the coach, but once you've come off, you can't come back on," Bartlett told his SEN listeners.
"No longer is the bench about covering injured players, interchange is now running at an average of 129 per game," he said.
"Interchange has hijacked the game to such a point now that it's becoming like rugby, it's not an indigenous game of Australian Rules football any more.