SYDNEY Swans coach Paul Roos has joined Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse’s lead in calling for the AFL to look at adding an extra interchange player.

Roos had some sympathy for his coaching counterparts on the weekend when he saw both Collingwood and St Kilda suffer player injuries.

“There needs to be a think tank regarding the interchange,” Roos said. “With two players down it is almost impossible to win a game of football. It was a great effort by Collingwood to be able to do what they did.

“It is up to the AFL to determine whether they want to subject the fans to that. I imagine the Collingwood supporters were sitting there halfway through the third quarter thinking even though we are close it is going to be tough.

“It is not for the coaches to come up with the answer but it is certainly worth thinking about and tossing some ideas around.

“If you polled the coaches I am sure that most want extra players on the bench certainly for the injury situations that happened on the weekend. 

“I think it is certainly worth discussing with the Players Association, the Coaches Association and the AFL because there is no doubt that the game is more physically demanding and maybe it is time to expand the bench.

“You don’t want games to be determined by injuries. It happens to all clubs but Collingwood certainly didn’t get the luck of the draw yesterday.”

Malthouse has been a strong advocate for a prolonged period of time for an enhanced interchange bench but the AFL has yet to adhere to Malthouse’s requests. The last time the interchange bench was expanded was back in 1997.