A MAJORITY of AFL coaches wants the League to introduce player substitutions next season.

The annual AFL Coaches Association/afl.com.au survey of senior coaches has revealed 12 were in favour of introducing subs on the interchange bench.

Also, while a majority of coaches wanted to see the number of interchange rotations remain unlimited, some said the AFL should place a cap on the interchanges a team could make each quarter.

Player rotations and interchange flexibility have been hot topics in recent seasons, but they have come into focus more this year as injury tolls continue to rise.

Earlier this week, AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson told afl.com.au the League was considering introducing subs from next season, a move that would have the backing of most coaches.

When asked, 'Should clubs be allowed to bring on substitutes for injured players?' just four AFL coaches suggested keeping the game unchanged.

Most thought allowing the use of substitutes was a good idea, but many had words of warning or believed the practice would need monitoring.

"I'm not sure of the correct system, but it needs to guard against abuse," one coach said in the confidential survey.

"[We need to be careful the] player is not really injured but you just want to replace him with a 'fresh' player."

Two coaches suggested that if a player was injured and subsequently replaced he should automatically be deemed ineligible for the following round.

Another coach said players injured in the first quarter only should be replaced, while another believed the NAB Cup rules adopted this year - where two players were able to be substituted - was a viable system.

One coach, however, didn't believe injury should be a pre-requisite for substitutions.

"You should get one substitute to be used at any time, regardless of injury," he wrote.

The League's football operations department and laws of the game committee will this season focus on the interchange bench, with Anderson saying the AFL would examine if there was a link between the increase in player rotations and injury.

"[Do] we have two substitutes - six [interchange] plus two [substitutes] - and we could conceivably have a model where there are four interchange, but one or two of them are substitutes," he said.
"You could conceivably have a model where there were five interchange and three of them are substitutes or a whole other range of permutations and combinations."

While a majority of coaches endorsed the idea of substitutes, some opposed it.

Some also argued action needed to be taken on the number of interchanges being made during AFL matches, which this season his reached record-high levels.

One coach said the number of rotations should be capped at no more than 16 a quarter while 18 and 20 per quarter were other limits suggested.

But the overwhelming view was that more interchanges meant better football.

"[If rotations were] capped at even 16 a quarter it would change the game for the worse," one coach said.

"It would slow the game down and the skills would deteriorate. If they cap it, it has to be a minimum of 100 per team, per game."