The AFL will consider introducing a substitute system next season, possibly at the expense of interchange bench numbers.

Adelaide coach Neil Craig, Melbourne counterpart Dean Bailey, the Western Bulldogs' Rodney Eade and Sydney's Paul Roos have all this week floated the idea of substitutes being allowed to replace injured players.

They would differ from current interchange players, in that once they took to the field the player they replaced would not be allowed to return.

AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said the league would consider that option as part of a post-season review of the interchange system.

They will also look at whether there is a link between increasing rotation of players through the bench and injuries.

Anderson said if substitutes were introduced, it might come on top of the current four-man interchange bench, or in exchange for reducing interchange players.

"We could conceivably have a model where there are four interchange, but one or two of them are substitutes," Anderson told the AFL website.

"You could conceivably have a model where there were five interchange and three of them are substitutes or a whole other range of permutations and combinations."

He ruled out any changes during the current season.

But he said the league did not expect to expand the size of the interchange bench - not including substitutes - beyond the current four.

"There is a danger with increasing the interchange, (that) you will increase the speed of the players out there on the ground and potentially the risk of collision injuries," he said.

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