Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has suggested that clubs should be allowed to substitute in emergency players during games as part of the AFL’s proposed concussion sub rule.
Hardwick believes the 23rd man should apply to players who suffer head knocks and injuries mid-match.
“From my point of view, once again, to get a concussion sub and then a guy breaks his leg four minutes later, why shouldn’t you be able to use the sub for that reason also? Hardwick told Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Monday night.
“We do name four emergencies so for example if I lose a tall, we’ll always name a tall in the emergency list, well let’s go and get the tall bloke out of the grandstand.
“Mabior Chol for example is the emergency and we might lose, touchwood this doesn’t happen, Toby Nankervis, alright, well let’s go and get the ruck.”
Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes was staggered by the three-time premiership coach’s sub suggestion.
“It’s laughable,” Cornes told SEN SA Breakfast.
“Damien Hardwick suggesting that we go and pluck a player out of the grandstand in the middle of a game because they only picked one ruckman – that’s your fault.
“If you go into a game with one ruckman you know full well that if he goes down, you’ve got to have a back-up. This is the art of coaching, this is how you select your team, this is how you mitigate the risk of injuries.
“This is the premiership coach – three-time winning premiership coach – suggesting that they go and pluck a tall defender out of the grandstand off their emergency list and put him into the game halfway through because he’s lost a player due to injury.
“Honestly, let’s take stock of where we are as a game, where it used to be, and these coaches whinging because they haven’t picked two ruckmen on game day.
"That blows me away that we could have one of the deepest thinkers and most influential coaches suggesting we go and get someone out of the grandstand."
