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AN interchange cap for the 2014 AFL season is coming so stop complaining about it.
That's the emphatic message from AFL boss Andrew Demetriou to the league's senior coaches following widespread condemnation of the interchange cap, which has proved a sour point for clubs during the NAB Cup.
Several AFL coaches have slammed the rule, which restricts them to a total of 80 rotations per match. But Demetriou says the cap was agreed to in principal late last year, and that was final.
"The fact of the matter is, unless people have got amnesia, the AFL Commission has already passed the rule," Demetriou said on SEN Radio today.
"It said at the end of the year the cap is coming in.
"And they wanted to look at this year to see if the actual number of 80 (the cap) is correct.
"There's no going back on that - that is already put in place."
A high number of AFL coaches expressed their displeasure at the cap rule last weekend.
Hawthorn premiership coach Alastair Clarkson led the charge to condemn the rule following his side's one-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.
"Take it back to old reserves and just play 18 men on the ground if that's what you want to do," Clarkson said.
"It's a pretty dramatic change to go to 80.
"Goodness knows, no one knows, what's going to happen to the game so hopefully common sense will prevail.
"If they want to introduce a cap hopefully they do it at a sensible rate like 120 and then we can see what a minor cap does to the game rather than take it to 80."
Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney said he spent “a stupid amount of time” counting interchange rotations during the game rather than coaching his team, while Carlton coach Mick Malthouse – a staunch advocate of unlimited bench moves - will meet with rules committee member Kevin Bartlett this week to express his frustration at the change.
“Coaches get driven mad by having reduced (interchange) numbers," Malthouse said after the Blues’ big win against Fremantle on Saturday. "I just don't get it.
"It's not friendly to the players. If (the AFL) wants the medical evidence which they've chosen to dismiss, it will suggest that there's a very strong link between more interchanges and less injuries, not the other way around."
The AFL chief executive said he did not understand the level of criticism.
"I'm not quite sure why after one round of NAB Cup, everyone is up in arms," he said.
"We've been through the proper process - we actually advised the coaches and told them at the coaches' dinner we had last year.
"I'm not quite sure whether there is something in people's Wheaties at the moment."
Demetriou said the final number of rotations allowed per game may change, but not the rule itself.
"Unless after we get all the results of this year from the data and the injury survey to see if there are any trends, whether that should be higher or lower and I'm just speculating, but there will be a cap," he said.
"That has already been decided."
AN interchange cap for the 2014 AFL season is coming so stop complaining about it.
That's the emphatic message from AFL boss Andrew Demetriou to the league's senior coaches following widespread condemnation of the interchange cap, which has proved a sour point for clubs during the NAB Cup.
Several AFL coaches have slammed the rule, which restricts them to a total of 80 rotations per match. But Demetriou says the cap was agreed to in principal late last year, and that was final.
"The fact of the matter is, unless people have got amnesia, the AFL Commission has already passed the rule," Demetriou said on SEN Radio today.
"It said at the end of the year the cap is coming in.
"And they wanted to look at this year to see if the actual number of 80 (the cap) is correct.
"There's no going back on that - that is already put in place."
A high number of AFL coaches expressed their displeasure at the cap rule last weekend.
Hawthorn premiership coach Alastair Clarkson led the charge to condemn the rule following his side's one-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.
"Take it back to old reserves and just play 18 men on the ground if that's what you want to do," Clarkson said.
"It's a pretty dramatic change to go to 80.
"Goodness knows, no one knows, what's going to happen to the game so hopefully common sense will prevail.
"If they want to introduce a cap hopefully they do it at a sensible rate like 120 and then we can see what a minor cap does to the game rather than take it to 80."
Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney said he spent “a stupid amount of time” counting interchange rotations during the game rather than coaching his team, while Carlton coach Mick Malthouse – a staunch advocate of unlimited bench moves - will meet with rules committee member Kevin Bartlett this week to express his frustration at the change.
“Coaches get driven mad by having reduced (interchange) numbers," Malthouse said after the Blues’ big win against Fremantle on Saturday. "I just don't get it.
"It's not friendly to the players. If (the AFL) wants the medical evidence which they've chosen to dismiss, it will suggest that there's a very strong link between more interchanges and less injuries, not the other way around."
The AFL chief executive said he did not understand the level of criticism.
"I'm not quite sure why after one round of NAB Cup, everyone is up in arms," he said.
"We've been through the proper process - we actually advised the coaches and told them at the coaches' dinner we had last year.
"I'm not quite sure whether there is something in people's Wheaties at the moment."
Demetriou said the final number of rotations allowed per game may change, but not the rule itself.
"Unless after we get all the results of this year from the data and the injury survey to see if there are any trends, whether that should be higher or lower and I'm just speculating, but there will be a cap," he said.
"That has already been decided."
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