St Kilda coach Ross Lyon says the AFL should think about increasing the interchange cap with the way the game has evolved.
Many teams are deploying a fast, handball-style game which Lyon said is a trend that has “been in the game for a while”.
“I think on the weekend we were really quite high in handball metres gained,” Lyon said.
“The game’s opened up. I think maybe the interchange restriction is limiting the ability to get the ball to open space now. So maybe rather than a set and forget rule maybe the AFL dives into ‘do we unleash the rotations’ so to speak.”
However, the experienced coach said it’s great the game has opened up but said the AFL wants the game to be fast, but by capping the interchanges at 75, they are increasing fatigue for players.
“I think it’s great but what I’m saying is the old rules that were put in place with the interchange to open the game up with the stand rule … you need to be able to run to take advantage of that (the space),” he said.
“And then the other thing is putting a lot of pressure on players’ bodies with that running game. Now it seems intuitively 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.”
Originally published as AFL 2026: Ross Lyon says AFL contradicting itself with current interchange cap