Get used to the sight of these screens being held aloft on the sidelines - it’ll be something you’ll see plenty of this AFL season.

The league today unveiled the look of its bench screens, which will be used to alert players to come from the ground in the wake of changes to the AFL’s rules around runners.

SEE THE SCREENS IN ACTION IN THE PLAYER ABOVE

As runners can now only enter the playing field after a goal has been kicked, and must leave before play restarts, the bench screens are seen as a necessity to keep players abreast of who should be coming off the ground.

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But they’ll be used for more than just substitutions. Different colours and symbols are likely to be deployed to help alert players to shift to different parts of the ground, or trigger certain set plays, such as from kick-ins.

“They were asked for by the clubs to help facilitate rotations,” AFL consultant James Podsiadly told 7News.

“And then there was another conversation we had with coaches to help facilitate other communications.

“There’s an opportunity in there where clubs can load up their own symbols and use that to convey messages to players, so we might see that.”

The crackdown on runners is one of a string of rule changes to come into force this season.

Other new initiatives include the 6-6-6 starting position formation at centre bounces, the ability to play on directly from a kick-in, and the ability to take the ball out of the ruck without conceding automatic prior opportunity.