Brisbane Lions skipper Jonathan Brown says interchange rotations are spiralling out of control and could threaten the fabric of the game.
Brown's comments come just days from the start of the home and away season in which clubs are tipped to use the interchange more than ever in a bid to keep their players fresh.
Just six years ago clubs averaged only 30 per match but by last year that number had risen to 91.
The AFL is already aware of the situation with game analysis manager Andrew McKay set to monitor the situation this season.
Clubs could eventually be forced to accept a cap on the number of rotations they can make per match.
In the NAB Cup the trend grew again with teams averaging a total of 122 changes per match.
Port Adelaide set a new benchmark when it made 169 in its match against West Coast. That equates to players coming on and off the bench just under every minute.
Brown said the AFL captains had voiced their collective concern during their annual day with the league.
"We are starting to get the feeling it might be a bit too much," Brown said.
"If it starts getting up to 130 or 150 per game there might be a feeling from the captains that we are starting to swing (our view) on that."
Brown said the great one-on-one battles of the past were being lost in the modern-day game.
"We don't have the one-on-ones and the names playing on each other in the midfield and even to an extent it’s hard for the forwards to get that now (against defenders)," he said.
"There is so much energy in the players now (because they are constantly being rested on the bench) that they can get back and defend (in groups) and put a lot of pressure on wherever the ball is."
"It's very rare now to see even the key position players go one-on-one during a game so maybe they (the AFL) need to cap (interchange rotations) so that fans can follow the game a bit better."
However Brown said he was certain there would be resistance from coaches if the AFL enforced a limit.
"The game seems to be pretty good at the moment so maybe there will be people arguing against that," he said.
McKay told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper it would be "chaos" if clubs began to average 150 per game.
"You speak to assistant coaches and they say it's absolute madness, you can't manage it," he said.
"(But) I don't think it has upset the look of the game yet."
The league is yet to be convinced there's a direct link between the use of the interchange bench and injury rates.
"There's no conclusive evidence on injuries yet (but) we want to know is the trend of soft tissue injuries going up in relation to interchange rotations," McKay said.