A thorough examination of the match review panel has emerged as a top priority for new AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan.
The league announced Thursday that football operations manager Mark Evans has already briefed club executives over potential changes to MRP, one of which would see fines replacing suspensions for lesser offences.
“With cameras everywhere and more scrutiny on every game, quite rightly [the MRP] is picking up more and more incidents,” McLachlan said of the supposedly well-received proposal.
“We want a clean game, but we’re looking to get as much consistency as we can,” he added, also admitting “Things can always be improved.”
“I don’t think anyone likes seeing people miss games for minor offences and that’s potentially been a challenge of the system as it is currently.”
The AFL faces a potentially embarrassing situation in September if Nat Fyfe is denied a Fremantle-first Brownlow medal for a petty and controversial early-season suspension for a high bump on Gold Coast’s Michael Rischitelli.
McLachlan edged away from the topic, saying only that “There’s a lot of scenarios for the Brownlow, I just hope I get most of the names right and we have a worthy winner”.
Brisbane Lions coach Justin Leppitsch joined the call to have the MRP overhauled earlier this week despite having veteran defender Daniel Merrett cleared of a reckless spoil attempt which cleaned up Demon Cam Pedersen, criticising the league’s carry over points based system.
“To a man, I think most people think the consistency is not there and only because it’s based around points and less common sense,” Leppitsch said.
“I probably expected him to miss maybe one, maybe two from what I saw,” Leppitsch laughed.
“I guess it’s human beings and case-by-case and, when you’re dealing with just numbers, mistakes can happen both for the good and the bad.”
Check out the Fyfe incident at the 0:20 mark of the below video.
Photo: Robert Presioso/Getty Images
