Melbourne Storm captain Harry Grant has voiced his concerns about the newly-appointed interchange rules being brought into the 2026 NRL competition.
The interchange bench will be extended from four to six players in the upcoming season, which will see a lot of players miss large chunks of games as back-ups for injuries.
Coaches now have the choice of six players to utilise during the game, still with only four being able to be activated.
Grant revealed to Nine that he has doubts about the new ruling, saying he believes there will be a significant number of players who won't feature in the top grade as a result of being benched each week.
"I do get a little bit worried for a couple of guys, there could be potentially three guys that sit on the bench, and don't get to play many minutes, or any footy over a long period of time throughout the season," Grant said.
"Thats probably one thing that does concern me a little bit, given we're not increasing the interchanges [from eight], there will be a lot of guys that don't get to play much footy during the season".
With the match-day squads being extended from 17 to 19, there will be players picked each week, who go through the processes of captains run, and match-day preparation, but won't feature in the contest, and potentially don't play reserve grade pending on the timing of the match each weekend.
Where reserve grade comes first, any players in the 19-man squad will be unlikely to participate.
It is arguably a tough situation for a hypothetical rookie player, who may not be getting game-time, but is contributing through the processes of first grade without actually gaining any experience in playing.
Grant was also able to praise the rule change, saying he understands where the decisions stems from, and player welfare is at the forefront.
"I guess it's a little but of 'wait and see how it goes', I do undertsand it all and see where the protection of players and that comes into it," the Australian dummy half said.
The interchange ruling is one of several new rules being added to the 2026 season, the others being:
- Trainers being restricted on times when they can enter the field
- Tackle infringment set restarts have been pushed back to the 20-metre line, replacing the 40-metre ruling last year.
- Players will not be penalised defending a 7-tackle set restart in the act of scoring a try, resulting in a 6-tackle restart.
The addition of two extra bench players also brings into question whether the 'utility' player will add the same value as it has in the past, with coaches now able to decide on more options depending on results in the game.
