THE SUBSTITUTE will be removed and the interchange cap reduced from 120 to 90 rotations per game in 2016 under changes announced to clubs on Thursday.

The game will return to four interchange players with clubs allowed to also make changes at quarter breaks.

Forced changes such as the blood rule, concussion assessment and stretcher changes will not be counted as part of the rotations.

The game has not had average rotations of around 90 since 2009 when the average rotations per team per game was 91.9 while in 2008 it was 80.3.

The substitute was introduced for the first time in 2011 as the AFL attempted to curb the number of interchange rotations per game, which had jumped to 117.4 rotations per team per game in 2010.

However the introduction of the interchange cap at 120 rotations per match across three players and a substitute in 2014 saw the substitute less important to ensure fairness if a team lost a player during the game due to injury.

The concussion substitute has also been an important benefit of the substitute but the AFL Medical Officers are comfortable the examination of players suspected of suffering concussion will still continue as required with coaches aware of the importance of that process.