The AFL has poured cold water on Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson's scheduling concerns related to Sunday's hot fixture in the Sunshine State.
Sanderson was baffled that his side played in Brisbane at 1.10pm on a warm winter's day that reached 24.6C.
"If you're going to schedule games up here at this time of year, you've got to put them at night. Otherwise you're going to put players' health and safety at risk," Sanderson said.
"For the AFL to constantly preach player safety with the rules, you can't have a game in these conditions with a reduced interchange cap, as you saw today."
AFL football operations manager Mark Evans on Monday dismissed Sanderson's criticism.
"Certainly it was hotter in Adelaide at the start of the year. Certainly it's been hotter in the finals series, where people have had six-day breaks and all of those sort of things," Evans said.
"I don't think it's outside the realm of an acceptable limit.
"There's a lot of things in a fixture. I don't think you exclude 1.10pm games in Brisbane in the middle of August just because of those things."
The Crows were one short on the bench after Tom Lynch and Andy Otten were both stretchered off in the opening half, with many of their players suffering cramp in the second half.
"Every player's absolutely spent, and you want us to turn up in six days and take on Richmond in a blockbuster game?" Sanderson asked.
Evans said the league recognised Adelaide's six-day break and that "every effort was made to get them onto a plane that night".
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