The NRL's competition committee has issued a recommendation that no change be made to the game's interchange system.
The committee met in Sydney on Tuesday to discuss a possible reduction of interchanges from the current level of eight per match.
Interchanges were reduced from 10 to eight in 2015 and the committee said there was no reason to reduce that number any further at the immediate point in time.
"On the evidence presented, there is simply not enough reason to change the number of interchanges now," said committee member and Penrith coach Ivan Cleary.
"We made the point last year that we wanted to defer until halfway through this year to make a decision based on the way the game is heading. Now that we have done that, we feel there is no need to make a change."
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It's believed the addition of the shot clock for drop-outs and scrums in 2019 was argued as being the equivalent to a reduction of interchanges.
The committee was also told the ball had been in play for over 2-1/2 more hours than at the same time in 2018 with average ball-in-play time per game being almost two minutes higher than it was at the same point last season.
A final determination on any interchanges alterations will be made by the ARL Commission at a later date.
It's understood the commission also discussed imposing heavier penalties for dangerous contact - head/neck charges in the wake of recent crusher tackles in the past few weeks.
No recommendation was issued in regard to that situation.
The competition committee will meet again later in 2019.
