interchange information - is it anywhere?

[Nearenough]

just a random statty question. is there anywhere that records the time played by each player in a match? ie when they went on or off as an interchange during the match? not on superleague stats, not on rlp, not in league express. is it anywhere?

[Grimmy]

On 15/04/2026 at 08:43, Nearenough said:

just a random statty question. is there anywhere that records the time played by each player in a match? ie when they went on or off as an interchange during the match? not on superleague stats, not on rlp, not in league express. is it anywhere?

I'm 99% sure no one is tracking those stats unfortunately, or at least not publicising them. Some clubs may have their own that they monitor internally.

Edited April 16 by Grimmy

[Nearenough]

can find the info all over the place for association football

[Grimmy]

5 minutes ago, Nearenough said:

can find the info all over the place for association football

More money (and more importantly betting!) in football. Plus it is easier to track to be fair as once you're on then you stay on in football. We have eight interchanges (plus free ones related to on report, dismissals or concussion assessments) as well as players missing time for sin bins and green cards. Add in that the game stops for a sub in football so you will notice the substitution happen. In rugby they mostly happen during live play so you would need someone quite switched on if they were separate to the coaching staff.

Edited April 16 by Grimmy

[phiggins]

33 minutes ago, Grimmy said:

I'm 99% sure no one is tracking those stats unfortunately, or at least not publicising them. Some clubs may have their own that they monitor internally.

I think they are being tracked, but for some reason, not publicised. Some stats are published for SL games on the SL website, but sure I read somewhere that the tracking is also being done for cup games as well.

[Grimmy]

2 minutes ago, phiggins said:

I think they are being tracked, but for some reason, not publicised. Some stats are published for SL games on the SL website, but sure I read somewhere that the tracking is also being done for cup games as well.

It's odd that you never see minutes-related stats pop up in the coverage then. They may now need to track it internally for the number of minutes a player has played for concussion issues. There was a rule about how much a player could play in a season but I feel like they may have backed down on it. I'm also not sure whether it related to minutes or games. That could have a massive impact for forwards.

[Spidey]

48 minutes ago, Nearenough said:

can find the info all over the place for association football

Football isn’t multiple on/off for one player so easier to track

bbc have some info, how accurate it is anybody’s guess

[gingerjon]

Go to Superleague Basketball. Go to player stats.

They can track minutes and let the public know.

We have no excuses.

[Griff]

On 15/04/2026 at 08:43, Nearenough said:

just a random statty question. is there anywhere that records the time played by each player in a match? ie when they went on or off as an interchange during the match? not on superleague stats, not on rlp, not in league express. is it anywhere?

Opta do it for Superleague.  But they only make it available to the clubs.

BBC do it on a hugely ad hoc basis.  Here we see that Wakefield made no substitutions last week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/match/EVP5252609

One of the problems - and the reason I stopped recording times of substitutions - is that they're usually made while the ball's in play and you miss the actual change because you're watching the play.

 

Edited April 16 by Griff
Had another look at the linked page

[Griff]

Two or three years ago, there was a proposal to limit playing time to 2400 minutes for backs and 2000 for forwards in a rolling twelve month period. It would have been relatively simple to collect the data - fourth official just records the subs and the times - but what would take much more time would be crunching all this data into 12 month playing time every week.

Anyway, it didn't happen and, as far as i'm aware, it's been dropped presumably as not worth the cost.

[Hopie]

1 hour ago, Griff said:

Two or three years ago, there was a proposal to limit playing time to 2400 minutes for backs and 2000 for forwards in a rolling twelve month period. It would have been relatively simple to collect the data - fourth official just records the subs and the times - but what would take much more time would be crunching all this data into 12 month playing time every week.

Anyway, it didn't happen and, as far as i'm aware, it's been dropped presumably as not worth the cost.

There were rules regarding limited minutes "in force" last year but there was no sanction for breaking them, hence the quotation marks. 
https://www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk/news/rfl-confirm-super-league-minute-1204330

[Griff]

1 hour ago, Hopie said:

There were rules regarding limited minutes "in force" last year but there was no sanction for breaking them, hence the quotation marks. 
https://www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk/news/rfl-confirm-super-league-minute-1204330

Superleague have good records, of course, produced by Opta.

I can't see it spreading to the Championship clubs.

[Damien]

4 hours ago, Griff said:

Opta do it for Superleague.  But they only make it available to the clubs.

BBC do it on a hugely ad hoc basis.  Here we see that Wakefield made no substitutions last week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/match/EVP5252609

One of the problems - and the reason I stopped recording times of substitutions - is that they're usually made while the ball's in play and you miss the actual change because you're watching the play.

 

It certainly is ad hoc if they do it for one club and not the other in the same match. 

[Dunbar]

7 minutes ago, Damien said:

It certainly is ad hoc if they do it for one club and not the other in the same match. 

They also randomly list the teams in Union formation, with the front row first, again in the same game sometimes, so one team has a full back first and another has a prop first.

It would be funny if it wasn't so frustrating. 

[V02]

12 hours ago, phiggins said:

I think they are being tracked, but for some reason, not publicised. Some stats are published for SL games on the SL website, but sure I read somewhere that the tracking is also being done for cup games as well.

 

On 15/04/2026 at 08:43, Nearenough said:

just a random statty question. is there anywhere that records the time played by each player in a match? ie when they went on or off as an interchange during the match? not on superleague stats, not on rlp, not in league express. is it anywhere?

 

12 hours ago, Grimmy said:

It's odd that you never see minutes-related stats pop up in the coverage then. They may now need to track it internally for the number of minutes a player has played for concussion issues. There was a rule about how much a player could play in a season but I feel like they may have backed down on it. I'm also not sure whether it related to minutes or games. That could have a massive impact for forwards.

 

8 hours ago, Griff said:

Opta do it for Superleague.  But they only make it available to the clubs.

BBC do it on a hugely ad hoc basis.  Here we see that Wakefield made no substitutions last week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/match/EVP5252609

One of the problems - and the reason I stopped recording times of substitutions - is that they're usually made while the ball's in play and you miss the actual change because you're watching the play.

 

Opta do it for all Super League, along with Challenge Cup after a certain round. They are sometimes off by a bit. It’s just total minutes though you don’t see their stints.

Clubs internally track their subs and minutes, both in terms of live interchange management, but also load management, player analysis and so on across the year. Usually that goes all the way down to scholarship, but academy at bare minimum (where interchanges are also limited).

[Grimmy]

10 hours ago, V02 said:

 

 

 

Opta do it for all Super League, along with Challenge Cup after a certain round. They are sometimes off by a bit. It’s just total minutes though you don’t see their stints.

Clubs internally track their subs and minutes, both in terms of live interchange management, but also load management, player analysis and so on across the year. Usually that goes all the way down to scholarship, but academy at bare minimum (where interchanges are also limited).

I just asked a current academy trainer, they don't track minutes at least at his club or the club he moved from. They know the number of games and obviously have a rough estimate of minutes based on their usual forward rotations but they weren't accurately tracking (or even trying to track) the minutes played. He said at that level it's fairly redundant as no academy player ever gets 'rested' anyway unless it's injury related or wanting to give someone else a crack.

[Griff]

57 minutes ago, Grimmy said:

I just asked a current academy trainer, they don't track minutes at least at his club or the club he moved from. They know the number of games and obviously have a rough estimate of minutes based on their usual forward rotations but they weren't accurately tracking (or even trying to track) the minutes played. He said at that level it's fairly redundant as no academy player ever gets 'rested' anyway unless it's injury related or wanting to give someone else a crack.

Died a death, then.

[V02]

13 hours ago, Grimmy said:

I just asked a current academy trainer, they don't track minutes at least at his club or the club he moved from. They know the number of games and obviously have a rough estimate of minutes based on their usual forward rotations but they weren't accurately tracking (or even trying to track) the minutes played. He said at that level it's fairly redundant as no academy player ever gets 'rested' anyway unless it's injury related or wanting to give someone else a crack.

Two of three academies I've coached/coach at have tracked them. The third was particularly low budget. Trainer wouldn't necessarily be the person who knows. Disagree on minutes also. Scholarship you get 7 substitutes but there's only 8 games so ensuring people get a decent look is important. Same goes for the academy, but also promoting players to reserves, giving people a rest if they're playing for both, giving them a night of less training.

Edited April 17 by V02