Had an interesting situation this past Saturday, something I'd never really thought about before. Good, competitive 17s game, home team won 2-0 but away team very much in the game throughout. As normal in this area teams used rolling subs. During second half, home team manager made many substitutions, 12 in total, which he's perfectly entitled to do. No suggestion that he was playing silly b~@gers, just giving his players a run out or rest when needed. Of course, the away team caught on to this and started asking about added time etc. Had a polite word with the home manager at one of his changes and made him aware of the possibility of more added time than normal and no problem from him on that point. Eventually played 8 mins added time and no issues at the final whistle. However, I can see the potential for this to spill over in the case where the away team might have been 1-0 down and chasing the game. I spoke with a colleague who does 13s/14s matches and he finds that over use of rolling subs really breaks up games at that age.
Anyone have any opinions? Should there be some limitation on rolling subs and if so, how?
Anyone have any opinions? Should there be some limitation on rolling subs and if so, how?