Rotation cap has Grand Final coaches feeling handicapped

WITH the interchange-cap rule abolished for practice games, NAB CUP Grand Final coaches Mick Malthouse and Michael Voss are frustrated that they will be playing under different rules to everyone else when their teams meet on Friday night at Etihad Stadium.

When their rivals will be playing under regular home and away rules, the Blues and Lions will be forced to play under the NAB Cup trial rule that allows a maximum of 80 rotations (20 a quarter).

Coaches Mick Malthouse and Michael Voss left no one in any doubt about their feelings on the issue at a press conference at AFL House on Thursday afternoon.

Malthouse said: "Well, we were just talking about that off air and I think these things can be addressed properly at another time. What did you say: that we are bound by 80 rotations on full-time and the others aren't? I don’t think we need to say any more. I don't anyway. Michael might want to say what he likes."

Voss said: "You’re doing well, Mick."

Pressed on the issue, Voss elaborated: "There's a nice environment that we want to be able to play under certain conditions, to give ourselves the best chance [in the premiership season, but] we don’t have those. It is what it is, as far as we're concerned. We move on and focus on what we've got to get done [on Friday]."

Carlton's new skipper Marc Murphy said the cap had been a challenge for players.

"It's certainly been a little bit tougher over the last few weeks, just getting used to staying out on the ground for 15-20 minutes [at a time], rather than coming off for six or seven and rotating two or three times a quarter," he said.

Both clubs are determined win the silverware to create winning cultures, and have selected their best-available teams.

"You can come away from this game with a little bit of confidence that you may not have had entering into the first (NAB Cup) game," Malthouse said.

And their was mutual respect, with Malthouse praising the form of the undefeated Lions while Voss revealed his belief that Carlton is a top-four side.

Voss refused to offer the Lions' less-than-ideal build-up (they haven't been able to stay at their usual hotel or training venue in Melbourne) as an excuse.

However, the Lions coach said suggestions that only 5000 fans would have attended the final if it had been held in Queensland was "a bit of an insult" to the club's home fans.

Malthouse said superstar Chris Judd, who will play his first game of the year after overcoming a hamstring strain, would play multiple roles "in the best interests of him and the football club".

Judd's game time would also be closely monitored, with Malthouse raising the possibility that the former skipper could be substituted out of the game at some stage.

Malthouse said the game was more about process than result, observing that the Blues' intensity had been down in their narrow loss to Adelaide last week, with some players appearing to be affected by "a little bit of self-satisfaction (that) we'd been OK for a couple of weeks".

Murphy will captain the Blues for the first time against the club that he could have joined under the father-son rule.