Game Review

Replacing Injured Players

Early in the third quarter both Fred Pringle and Stewart McLatchie were badly injured.
Pringle broke his collar bone while McLatchie suffered a heavy knock. The VFL rules at that time prohibited the replacement of injured players.
McLatchie stayed on the ground while the Blues played one player short due to Pringle's accident.

The Argus' football writer "Old Boy"
"The accidents to F. Pringle and S. McLatchie (Carlton) and W. Pearson (Brighton) in matches played on Saturday and Wednesday, should once more direct attention to the advisability of bringing a rule to provide for some method of equilising forces in the advent of an accident.
At St.Kilda, Carlton had to play for a considerable time with practically two men short, for though McLatchie was able to lean up against a goal post and was dubbed the "frozen footballer" - he looked so cold and miserable - he was of no use, and Pringle was off the field with a broken collar bone."
"I have never heard a reasonable explantion why a rule cannot be brought in to permit a substitute for an injured man, except for the poor one, "It might lead to abuses"
Each club has a medical officer, and there ought to be no difficulty, but allow an injustice to go on is unsportsmanlike, to say the least of it. I can imagine the view a club will take should one of its men be injured early in a final and rob it of its chance.
The Metropolitan Amateur Association and the public schools have tried the substitution of a new man for an injured one with signal success. Regulations could easily be framed to safeguard all interests. In lacrosse, when a injured man leaves the field an opponent goes off with him.
If the League and Association bring in this reform they would remove a serious blot on the game. Football should be a sport in which conditions should be equalised as much as possible, not a gladitorial show notable for its victims."
(Edited from the original article, The Argus July 27 1923 p4)

At the end of this round Carlton were in 8th spot on the ladder with a percentage of 83.1.

Team