Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury is in favour of the AFL bringing in an injury substitute for the 2021 season, but admits it feels like introducing a new rule to correct another new rule.
The star Magpie is concerned about what the jump from 16 to 20 minute quarters coupled with 75 rotations will have on players and says a 23rd-man substitute to offset injuries will help keep players from burning out.
“I am surprised by it because it’s happened so late in the piece, but probably for the AFL just in general tried to get through round one of the pre-season games and I certainly felt the affects of 75 rotations and certain guys not being able to come off,” Pendlebury told SEN’s Whateley.
“Injury rates are probably going to spike because of that and I didn’t really even think about what happens if someone gets concussed, let alone injuries and how much pressure that’s going to put on the players.
“We’re a game that wants the best players out there, but we’re also red-lining the best players pretty quickly at the moment.
“It’s almost like a rule got created and then we needed to create another rule to solve the problem of that rule.
“I’m in favour of bringing in the injury rule or the medical sub, I don’t want to see players exposed, especially early.
“You just have to go back to the Grand Final (last year) and Nick Vlastuin is out cold in the first two minutes of the game, I know Richmond still won that game of footy, but it would’ve been great for them to have a replacement sitting on the bench.”
Pendlebury explained the flow-on affect of losing a player to an injury early in a game on the other 21 players.
“Personally, whenever you lose a player early in the game and you’re forced to play an extra eight or 10 minutes than you normally do you definitely notice the next day how sore you are, let alone if you lose two players and we’ve had that happen to us a few times over the last few years,” he said.
“So it mightn’t be that game, but somewhere in the next fortnight you get caught out and you have one of those games where your legs aren’t under you and you’re super fatigued and you look back and go ‘that’s from the game two weeks ago where you played an extra 15 per cent game time’ and just things like that.
“So I think it’ll be significant, especially early when guys are trying to find their legs and get used to the increased game time and reduced rotations and new rules.”
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