THE MEDICAL substitution rule has been in place in the AFL men’s competition for the past two seasons, and there’s perhaps an even more urgent need for it to be introduced in the AFLW.

The highly publicised rule exists in the men’s competition to increase player health and safety, and also to lessen the impact on a team that loses a player to injury on game day. AFLW players and teams need the same protection.

Under AFL rules, the 'medi-sub' was introduced for a player deemed medically unfit to continue to participate in a game and, “due to the nature of the injury sustained, it is reasonably determined the player will be medically unfit to participate in any match for at least the next 12 days”. Ultimately, it enables a team to still have a full line-up if someone goes down with an injury or concussion during a game.

I strongly believe the medical substitute should be considered for the women’s game, where the loss of a player during a game can be an even greater disadvantage. With only 16 players on the field and five on the bench (compared to the men’s 18 and four), the running intensity and overall load is condensed on fewer players.

We are now starting to play more frequently on bigger grounds such as the MCG, bringing into greater focus the 18-v-16 debate between the men’s and the women’s games.

Currently, only one game-day emergency warms up with each women’s team prior to the match, but they are then left out if they are not required to replace a teammate before the final on-field warm-up begins.

In the opening round of AFLW season seven, four teams had players that went down with match or season-ending injuries within the first half of their games.

Rachel Kearns (Geelong, shoulder), Montana Ham (Sydney, knee), Kellie Gibson (West Coast, knee) and Lily Postlethwaite (Brisbane, knee) each left the field in the hands of medicos and did not return.

In round two, fans saw two Hawks players go down in the first quarter, Tamara Luke with a serious knee injury and Louise Stephenson with an ankle injury. The Hawks then had to play the entirety of the match with only three remaining players on the bench. This no doubt affected Hawthorn's ability to compete, going down to the rampant Saints by 53 points.

When teams are forced to play the remainder of a game with only four - or fewer - players on the bench, it impedes their ability to rotate and, depending on the type of player that goes down, whether they can rotate at all. An example of this would be if a team selected only six backline players and one of them was injured – a predicament that would likely require the other five backs to remain on the ground for the rest of the game.

In a condensed season of only 10 rounds, every match matters, and teams can’t afford to be put under even more duress if a player goes down early.

The introduction of a medical substitute would also help protect the health and wellbeing of players who receive concussion or a serious head knock. We want players to have the confidence to come off the ground and report symptoms without the fear of letting the team down if they were to be taken out of the game. It also enables doctors to simply do their jobs without feeling any pressure to let players return to the field.

The medi-sub rule would also give the opportunity to introduce more players to the match-day experience. As a player, there is only so much training you can do to prepare yourself for the emotions of an AFLW match day, but there’s nothing quite like being there and living it.

The week-to-week exposure for younger players on the cusp of being selected in the senior team is extremely important for their development. Regardless of whether they take the field or not that day, they have prepared to play, and teams are set up for the worst to happen. With so many fresh faces in our game due the expansion of the competition to 18 teams, this becomes even more important.

There is no reason why this rule shouldn’t exist in the women’s game. In fact, there are only pros to highlight the need for its introduction.

For the duration of AFLW Indigenous Round, the Demons will be rebranded as the Narrm Football Club. Narrm is the Aboriginal name for Melbourne which comes from the Woi Wurrung language, spoken by the traditional owners of the city and its surrounds.