Tessa Lee, Sports journalist reporting on global leagues since 2021.
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon believes the AFL should consider removing interchange restrictions to help increase scoring and further open up the modern game. Lyon argued that player fatigue is now limiting attacking football rather than encouraging it, despite the league’s recent rule changes designed to create more free flowing contests.
The AFL has introduced several rule adjustments in recent seasons aimed at improving scoring and reducing congestion across the competition.
Among the most significant changes have been the 6 6 6 rule at centre bounces, the stand rule and this season’s introduction of the last disposal out of bounds interpretation.
The league also reduced the interchange cap to 75 rotations per team before the 2021 season in an attempt to increase fatigue and make it harder for teams to flood defensively.
However, Lyon believes the game’s evolution means that restriction may now be counterproductive.
“I think maybe the interchange restriction is limiting the ability to get the ball to open space now,” Lyon said.
Lyon says fatigue now hurting attacking football
According to Lyon, the faster and more open style created by recent rule changes requires players to have greater running capacity rather than reduced rotations.
“It seems a bit counterintuitive, those restrictions, because the game’s open and you need to run, but they’re putting fatigue into the players when now you probably don’t need to,” Lyon said.
“You need to be able to run to take advantage of the new rules.”
The experienced coach suggested the AFL should seriously examine whether increasing or completely removing interchange limits could lead to dramatic rises in scoring.
“Maybe they should look at releasing the shackles,” he said.
“Maybe the AFL dives into do we unleash the rotations and teams are kicking 120, 130, 140 points?”
Average scores across the AFL have already increased slightly this season following the introduction of the out of bounds rule interpretation, which has encouraged quicker ball movement and reduced stoppages.
Lyon’s comments are likely to reignite debate around whether the AFL’s attempts to manufacture attacking football have gone too far or not far enough.
Saints preparing for Richmond clash
St Kilda enters Sunday’s clash against Richmond at Marvel Stadium with a 4 and 5 record as the club attempts to break clear of a congested middle section of the ladder.
The Saints are expected to start strong favourites against an injury ravaged Richmond side that has won just one game this season.
St Kilda will hand AFL debuts to Charlie Banfield, the son of former West Coast premiership player Drew Banfield.
Jack Higgins also returns after missing two weeks with concussion.
However, the Saints will be without Mitch Owens due to a calf injury, while Mason Wood has been omitted from the side.
Richmond injury crisis deepens
Richmond continues to battle one of the competition’s worst injury lists with 17 players currently unavailable.
The Tigers will debut Noah Roberts Thomson on Sunday while Liam Fawcett and Sam Grlj have also been recalled.
Kane McAuliffe, Tom Brown and Mykelti Lefau are among the players unavailable for selection.
The clash presents another important opportunity for St Kilda to strengthen its finals push, while Richmond remains focused on developing young talent during a difficult campaign.