The league cited player safety as the main impetus for the rule,but it has only been introduced for the men’s competition. AFLW will operate under existing rules.

As one club source said,players selected as the 23rd man will receive both base and match payments.

Those on such contracts can receive bonus payments for playing a certain number of games in a season,or across multiple seasons.

“The coaches don’t think of the financial cost,they thought they would just pay a player $500 to be the sub,” one football manager said.

Another club source said the money that was being allocated outside the cap for the 23rd man would have been the equivalent of the cost of employing an additional coach,which was frustrating given the cuts made to football department spending in 2021.

The change was made after being raised by Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson and others when AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan met with the coaches. The decision was made without consulting club chief executives or general managers of football.

The doctor can only rule out a player if they deem them to have an injury that would take a minimum of 12 days to recover. But unless they have concussion,the player can play in their club’s next game if they recover before 12 days.

They will need a medical certificate from their club doctor to prove this. The substitute player will be selected from the team’s emergency list,and it can occur after interchange rotations – capped at 75 per game – are exhausted.

Under the medical provision for subbing a player out,clubs were told a player with a corkie who could not play out the game could be substituted even if he recovered quickly from that cork and was able to play the next game in six or seven days’ time.

“Club doctors are empowered through this,they need to make that decision. We have also got our chief medical officer at the AFL[looking at a player’s recovery if required],” AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking told reporters on Wednesday morning.

“Players recover at different phases. This is grounded in health and safety. We are going to back our doctors in.”

He said 16-18 players miss their next game due to injury each week in a normal season,according to AFL data. That helped move the substitute from just a concussion one,to one for any injury.

“If you look at the match review officer guidelines last year we made changes early in the season,” Hocking said. “Wherever we can through a season[improve player safety] it is incumbent on us to make the changes required. And it has come out of a discussion with the coaches.”

The substitute can still play at seconds level even if they are activated as the substitute,and would get a premiership medal on grand final day.

The surprise part of the decision was the AFL’s willingness to include injured players rather than only those who had been concussed,to be replaced by the substitute.

Equity and fairness were part of their reasoning in the initial discussion,which had been around concussion.

Clubs were briefed on the rule change at 11am on Wednesday.

Geelong coach Chris Scott agreed that although it won’t be ideal for the 23rd player,he suspected most would prefer being in that position than being out of the team.

“I think this is a pro-player rule change. It’s certainly not anti-player,” Scott said.

ButAFLPA boss Paul Marsh said on Tuesday that clubs would exploit the new injury substitute rule for tactical purposes,not just to replace injured players.

“It clearly has the capacity to be gamed and will be,we would expect,” Marsh said.

Scott said he understood why the league would be criticised for bringing in such a rule change at the 11th hour but there was nothing that could be done about that now.

He also expressed skepticism that the initiative was purely driven by the coaches,indicating the debate presented the AFL with an opportunity to act on concerns about player wellbeing and to ease the pressure on club doctors who had to make calls during games.

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said the rule would be “important for the game”,providing a counterbalance for injury issues caused by other new changes.

“You can see the strain that’s going to be there on the players,” Goodwin said.

“It’s going to be a long,arduous season,there’s going to be long games,I think it’s a good rule to have.”

with Owen Leonard