A RENEWED call has been made for names to be placed on the back of AFL player jumpers.

Fox Footy and 3AW commentator Dwayne Russell received a positive response on Twitter when he made the suggestion on Monday afternoon.

“It’s time for players names on (the) back fo AFL jumpers, at least for preseason games,” he wrote.

“Help fans at home see who everyone is, especially new kids in new numbers! Apologies to those bored with my yearly plea but (the) AFL (is) way behind world sport on this!”

Round 18

Its time for players names on back of @AFL jumpers, at least for preseason games. Help fans at home see who everyone is, especially new kids in new numbers! Apologies to those bored with my yearly plea but @AFL way behind world sport with this! @SportsdayRadio — Dwayne Russell (@_DwayneRussell) March 4, 2018

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The AFL tested the concept in Round 5 of the 2014 season, receiving a positive response from some fans. However a lack of space on the jumpers presented a “practical limitation”, according to league officials.

“The unique cut of AFL guernseys restricts the size of lettering that can be used and this in turn limits the legibility of the player names for fans at the ground, and to a lesser extent, for those watching on television or via other media channels,” then-general manager of commercial operations Darren Birch said at the time.

“There is only limited space available on the back of match day guernseys for suitably sized names due to player numbers, club acronyms and sponsor logos.

“The trial demonstrated that while the concept of player names might be a good one in theory, in practice it does not work as well as we would like.”

100 per cent with @_DwayneRussell on this. We are decades gone from the days of picking the same sr side each week. Players rise and fall to often, need better identifiers like names. #AFL https://t.co/WlU20cuGK2 — Roy Ward (@rpjward) March 5, 2018

Not hard to put names on the back either. Can only help Mark pic.twitter.com/8WTKyf3XVS — John Casey (@JohnCasey2880) March 5, 2018

I agree. When they trialed them a couple of years ago they were way too small. — DCarbs23 (@dcarbs23) March 5, 2018

In April of that year, then AFL football operations manager Mark Evans said the league had to be open to new ideas.

“In our game we’ve had a longstanding history of looking at the numbers and knowing the stars of our game via the numbers,” Evans said.

“We’ve always got one eye on the traditions of the game, but we should also have one eye on what the future could be.”

“Clubs have been coming to us for a while now asking us to consider this idea.

“There’s lots of young people and new people to our game who they think could have some benefit by being able to recognise names.”

The New York Yankees are one of the few holdouts to putting names on the backs of their uniforms. Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images/AFP Source: AFP

The overwhelming majority of global professional sports leagues have names on their jumpers, with the AFL and NRL some of the major holdouts.

The practice began in 1960 with Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox in order for television viewers to be able to identify players.

The New York Yankees are one of the few teams to go against the grain and not have names on their pinstriped uniforms, citing tradition.