Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has said he would like to see a loan system introduced in the AFL to give young players the opportunity to gain more playing time.

Gold Coast AFL club are in the midst of a ruck crisis, with co-captain Jarrod Witts (ACL) and youngster Matt Conroy (ACL) out for the season and Zac Smith (knee) unavailable for at least a month .

As it stands, the Suns won’t be able to complete their scrum duty before the June mid-season draft, but a football-like loan system would allow immediate reinforcement.

Hardwick cited the example of young Tigers ruckman Samson Ryan, who, due to the depth of Richmond’s ruck, is unlikely to play at his preferred AFL or VFL level soon as a player. who could benefit from it.

“Anything that gives a young player a chance to play, I love it,” Hardwick told reporters on Wednesday.

“We have a young child named Samson Ryan that we would like to instant loan (to the Suns).

“At the end of the day, this kid, we’re really excited for what he’s going to bring but we’ve got Coleman-Jones, we’ve got Mabior Chol, we’ve got Samson – so he’s sitting there playing VFL footy.

“Not that I would give them Samson if he plays against us, but anything that gives a player the opportunity to play at the AFL, I think we should watch, absolutely.”

Loan schemes are common in world football, while the Australian A-League introduced an internal loan scheme for players under 23 in 2018.

Often times, players on loan are not eligible to play against their parent club.

In the NRL last year, Melbourne’s Harry Grant and Wests Tigers’ Paul Momirovski traded clubs in a one-season loan deal, while some clubs also sent players on short-term loans to the then Warriors. that they were based in Australia.