RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace says adding two ‘emergency’ players to a team’s 22-man squad would make football more intriguing.

Speaking at his regular press conference on Tuesday, Wallace elaborated on his proposal to allow sides to keep two extra reserve players that could only be brought on the field in case of injury.

“You don’t want to get to a stage where it’s 22 v 20 and you are losing a game because of bad luck,” Wallace said.

“If you had just two emergency players it adds another bit of intrigue to the game. You can use them in any capacity you want – if you want to use them early or later it’s up to you.”

Wallace said the proposal was in its early stages but could be a way of dealing with the high number of interchange rotations in the AFL.

“My theory on it is that if you lose a key player in your line-up, not only do you lose them but you lose 25 per cent of your rotation ability. So you’re getting a double hit,” he said.

“It’s not so much how many interchanges you have, it’s how many interchanges you have versus your opponents.

“We have Collingwood this week and they are a high rotating team, we don’t want to be in a position where they’ve rotated 84 times and we’re on 48 times.

“If you go and have a look at the data of when sides have lost players, their percentage of winning chances are minimised. You come to a game where a team’s lost two players by half-time and tell me whether they win the game.”

Under Wallace’s proposal, the player leaving the field would not be allowed to return, as was the case with the initial 19th and 20th man rule, which was scrapped by the then VFL in 1977.

“In a fashion it is [the old 19th and 20th man rule]. I’ve noticed from a coaching point of view, the game has changed in the last fortnight... I’ve given away a lot of what I do," Wallace said.

"Once upon a time the senior coach decided every interchange that is going on but I have handed that over to our strength and conditioning coach and Brian Royal,” Wallace said.

“I want to get more data over the next month or so and there’s no urgency. I’d like to talk about it and see what the pros and cons are.”