Port Adelaide footy boss Chris Davies has confirmed the AFL has been in contact with the club over their use of the medical sub in 2022.
In its second year in the league, the medical sub rule has faced constant scrutiny after seemingly being manipulated by sides looking for an advantage late in games.
The Power have been one of the worst offenders. Four times in 2022 they’ve brought a player off as the medical sub, only to name him the following week.
League rules stipulate a player can only be subbed out if the club reasonably assumes they will not be fit to play for the next 12 days, however multiple teams, including Geelong, have suggested that is not the template they are following.
Asked about the issues on AFL Nation, Davies called discussions on the club’s use of the medical sub as “one dimensional”, suggesting they genuinely believed certain players would face longer injury returns.
“I think the AFL have had discussions over the week with every club, but there’s no doubt that our doctor and the AFL’s doctor have discussions when a player is medically subbed out,” he said.
“Some of the discussion this week has been a little bit one dimensional, if you reflect back on Round 1, we subbed Xavier Duursma out, he spent the night in hospital, we thought he had a broken collarbone, we could have subbed any three others out after that.
“We had Ollie Wines with his heart… Look, the AFL has certainly discussed this with us, and I’m sure that in the future there will be greater clarification from them as to what the rules need to look like.
“But as I say, the conversation that happens from a medical perspective doesn’t have much to do with the coach or footy manager.”
Duursma was subbed off in Round 1 before taking the field the following week and the same scenario has played out with Trent McKenzie (subbed in Round 2), Robbie Gray (subbed in Round 6) and Mitch Georgiades (subbed in Round 7).
Club legend Kane Cornes believes clubs need a clearer cut set of directions to follow when making the medical sub.
“There needs to be clarification,” he said.
“Even the clubs are screaming out for that, you can hear it in Chris Davies’ voice.
“I was watching that (Port Adelaide) game (last week) closely… I was thinking, ‘Georgiades has played just about the worst game ever played in a Port Adelaide jumper, it’s wet and three-quarter time and you need a boost, you’ve got fresh legs on the bench, I’ll be shocked if Ken Hinkley doesn’t sub out Georgiades’.
“That’s the cynic in me, if I was Ken Hinkley and you’re one and five at the time and you’re a couple of points down at three-quarter time… I’m doing that, absolutely I’m doing that, who can check if you have a tight calf?”
He added that the substitute rule could be regulated in a similar way to how the game manages concussions, enforcing a mandatory 12 days on the sidelines with no exceptions.
Port Adelaide are yet to activate their medical sub against the Western Bulldogs at half time on Friday night.