The 18 th Man

[Dexter]

Yes, I've liked that idea for a few years, it makes sense to me. If a ref thinks a send off offence has happened then send him and let him be replaced after a 10 or 15 min bin. The offending player takes no further part in the game.

 

[Ken Oath]

Instead of calling it an 18th man, let's simply call it a permanent reserve. A reserve that is available to be used by a coach to permanently replace another player irrespective of whether the player he replaces is injured (by foul play or otherwise) or simply hooked for a brain explosion. We do not need any more discretionary rules coming into our game. Only allowing such a replacement following foul play makes for far too much discretion by officials and we definitely don't need any more of that.

Nearly everyone in the game is in favour of reducing the number of interchanges in our game. In order to accommodate this as well as avoid situations like the Moi Moi incident against the Bullldogs, I think the bench should be reduced to 3 players on a rotation of 6 interchanges. A 4th player would also be sitting on the bench and would be be available to slot into the 3 man rotation in the event of a player being injured (whether through foul play or otherwise).

In the Moi Moi incident, the permanent reserve would have come onto the bench as soon as the Eels medical staff declared Fui Fui unfit to return and hence permanently replaced by the permanent reserve. Parramatta would still have had their full 3 man rotation for the rest of the game (unless of course someone else was badly injured). In the Moi Moi incident, his replacement would not have counted towards the 6 interchanges as it was forced through foul play.

Coaches could choose to employ their permanent reserve strategically if they wished just as long as the player the permanent reserve replaces does not return to the field.

In my view this minor change would assist in both alleviating situations where teams are unfairly disadvantage by early injuries and also assist in bringing the endurance element back into the contest as well as providing coaches with good strategic opportunities

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Kaz]

To be honest, I think if they simply changed the send off rule such that the player is out of the game but can be replaced.

Teams would exploit it.

They could put in a nuffie player to take out the oppositions best player.

And the opposition team could be a player down as well.

 

[Mister Wright]

Interchange reduced to 6. With replacement of players injured from an opposing player being put on report free from interchange. Eg. Coach uses all 6 interchages by the 71st minute. Player is hit high in the 75th minute and opposing player placed on report. Coach can either keep player on field or use a replacement player. Team not left with 12 on the field.

Also, if player is sent off, coach can decide to keep 12 players on the field an not use up interchange or use one of his/her interchanges to replace sent off player.