Interchange Limit May Curb Swans' Cup Assault

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday January 19, 2008

Michael Cowley

THE AFL's decision to trial restrictions on teams making interchanges has put a severe dent in Sydney's hopes of finally winning a pre-season cup match, with coach Paul Roos making it clear yesterday the Swans would be forced to play a weakened team against Hawthorn on February 17, in Tasmania.

Sydney are yet to win an opening-round match of the pre-season competition since Roos took over as coach in 2002, but having exited the finals early last year, and thus having three extra weeks to prepare for the upcoming season, the coach had indicated several of his star players could play in the NAB Cup match.

But the AFL announced this week that while they would increase the number of interchange players for each team in the cup from six to eight, each club could only have 16 interchanges per quarter, a total of 64 per game. The reasoning is that with interchange numbers rising significantly, there is a concern about the potential for more injuries.

"We spoke to them as a group and put in submissions as a club and the coaches association meeting with them was quite good," Roos said. "They admitted they didn't really have enough evidence and there wasn't anything to suggest injuries were going up, so we thought that's good, they're not going to do anything. So it came as a little bit of a surprise when they announced this change was going to be trialled in the NAB Cup.

"And in a sense what they're saying is you can have two extra, but you're not going to be able to use them."

While he was likely to have more senior players ready to play in Tasmania, Roos said he was hoping to use the unlimited interchange to give them limited game time.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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