Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said the club will look at requesting a change around the limitations of emergency-listed players on game day to "cater" for the needs of unexplained changes.

Beveridge, who has been steadfast in not debuting a player as the substitute, said the club was fortunate the late-out of Ryley Sanders didn't force Lachie Jaques to be called up, with James Harmes regaining his place in the senior side.

"We'll lobby for a policy change in regards to changes are made due to illness or something's happened late," Beveridge said.

"Where you need to replace a player, and then the possibility of adding another emergency who wasn't originally on the list, just in case you might need that player, because your other emergencies might be injured at state-league level.

"All the byes in that competition, needing to cater players' emotional and physical needs, you've got to keep playing and preparing them."

Earlier this year, Collingwood was granted special consideration following a host of late changes in extraordinary circumstances against North Melbourne.

The Pies lost Scott Pendlebury (illness) and Bobby Hill (personal reasons) just ahead of the bounce, and had Wil Parker, Harry DeMattia and Charlie West as the listed emergencies.

The AFL allowed Craig McRae to recall Oleg Markov into the fold, who leapfrogged DeMattia and West into the senior side, joining Parker at Marvel Stadium.

"If you read the policy around late changes, you understand why it's in place," Beveridge added.

"The AFL don't want teams shrouding their selection or picking players who definitely aren't going to play and then having late inclusions. Everyone gets that.

"But there will be legitimate circumstances, when Sando (Ryley Sanders) woke up really crook, couldn't play, and your last two emergencies after James Harmes are a key defender and a young bloke (who hasn't debuted).

"My approach is I never want to play a debutant as the sub, but ultimately, if something happened, Lachie would've been that player.

"So, you'd like another player available at that point, and (the other emergencies) could go down with injury in the state league game.

"So, whether we could name more emergencies, that'd help. You've got the option in those state-league games to sit down one or two players beyond the one or two who are left."

What could help mitigate these decisions and late selection calls could be Geelong coach Chris Scott's "more logical" approach.

The Cats were caught on multiple occasions earlier in the year, naming stars ahead of the weekend's contest before pulling them late from the game.

Scott said that the rules should give clubs and coaches the ability to choose the final teams the night before, to avoid late changes, but ultimately increase the reliability of the side named.