THE AFL announced changes on Tuesday night to the interchange laws and procedures which will take effect from round nine of the Toyota AFL Premiership season.
The changes will see a new interchange holding area created in front of the club benches and the AFL will appoint two interchange stewards (one per team) to assist clubs in complying with the interchange procedure.
The procedures around interchanges will now be tightly enforced.
The move comes in the wake of
The Swans were fined $50,000 - $25,000 of that suspended - after 19-year-old debutant Jesse White ran on to the ground before ruckman Darren Jolly had left the field at Telstra Dome.
That resulted in
Team officials will continue to be required to notify the AFL interchange steward of an intended interchange, but now when that change is approved by the interchange steward, the replacement player will move to the interchange holding area and remain there until such time as the player he is replacing has left the field through the interchange area.
The new rule, which was ratified on Tuesday night by the AFL Commission, will apply at AFL level from round nine. Under this rule, a free kick will be awarded when:
# A team has 19 men on the field (this includes a situation where a replacement player enters the playing surface before his teammate has left the playing surface);
# A player enters the field before his interchange is approved by the interchange steward (in the case of Swans’ player Jesse White in round six no interchange involving the player had been approved by the interchange steward);
# A player does not enter or leave the playing surface through the interchange area (previously he was disqualified from participating in any of the remainder of the match).
The field umpire will award a free kick from wherever play was stopped or the centre circle, whichever is the greater penalty. A 50m penalty will then be applied.
AFL general manager of football operations, Adrian Anderson, said the key purpose of the change was to ensure a modernised procedure was in place to prevent extra players entering the ground and reduce the possibility of clubs losing their score or premiership points.
Under the current law, a captain, if he suspected 19 men were on the field, was required to call a count.
If the count reveals an extra man, the opposition team loses its entire score for the match. A free kick plus a 50m penalty is also awarded. The existing rule also enables the AFL to sanction the offending team, including changing the result of a match if the interchange procedures are not followed properly.
Mr Anderson said the enforcing of the interchange procedures would alleviate congestion around the boundary line and ensure interchange stewards were aware at all times as to which players were supposed to be off the ground.
“The changes will mean players can not just run on to the ground but will have to make sure their change has been notified and approved,” he said.
"The system where the captains could call a count of heads and the scores would be cancelled right back to zero if there was an extra player on the field was found to be antiquated," Anderson told Melbourne's The Age newspaper on Tuesday night after a meeting with club officials.
"Hopefully this will help solve some of the problems that have developed with the high number of changes being made."
