Interchange cap too much, too soon, says Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson Melbourne veteran Nathan Jones says it will be irresponsible for the AFL to cap the interchange at 80. Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson says the proposed interchange cap is too severe. HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says the AFL's decision to slash the number of interchanges moves to 80 per game next season is too much too soon. Clarkson is one of a long line of critics of the AFL's decision this week to dramatically reduce bench rotations from the average of 130 per game. In some games last season, Hawthorn rotated players on and off its bench 150-plus times. But after spending an inordinate amount of time counting players coming on and off the ground in Hawthorn's NAB Cup match against the Bulldogs on Saturday, Clarkson urged the AFL to spend this year exploring a better number, he suggests 120. "Who knows what a cap of 80 will do to the game, no one really knows," Clarkson said yesterday. If you just took a slight variation and reduced it in a less significant way, say a cap of 120 in the first instance, then we can see what actually changes with the game. He knew a change was in the wind, but not so severe. "We knew at the end of last year there was going to be a cap in place," Clarkson said. To make such a dramatic change...it took a long time to go from the reserve system, to two interchange, then three interchange, then four interchange. That happened over a vast period of time, and coaches and players got an opportunity to become accustomed to those slight changes. But to go from an interchange system you've been used to, and both players and coaches have been used to a system where you've had on average 130 to a cap of 80, is too dramatic a change, both for the players in part and the coach They just need to spend the next 12 months working out what that cap should be. The Hawks' coach, along with head of coaching Chris Fagan and injured star Brendan Whitecross (knee reconstruction) were at hard-hit Boomer Bay yesterday to help fire-affected farmers repair fences ahead of the NAB Cup clash with Richmond in Launceston on Saturday, They will reunite with the rest of the team when they arrive in Launceston tomorrow for their NAB Cup clash with Richmond on Saturday. "We need to play better than we have over the past couple of weeks," Clarkson said. We've been a bit down on form, a bit rusty. It's obviously a long season ahead, but we've got two NAB Cup games to start settling our side down for Geelong in round one. Hawthorn is likely to bring back at least four front-line players for the match - Tasmanian defender Grant Birchall, veteran Shaun Burgoyne, ruckman Max Bailey and midfielder Xavier Ellis.