The AFL will make a key change to its controversial ARC process as the league reels from a succession of errors around how the game is run.
Two video review controversies during games on Sunday followed last week’s tribunal debacle, when Port Adelaide star Zak Butters was acquitted on appeal because of a technicality.
Then the league sacked appeal board chairman Will Houghton KC on Friday after the verdict and reasoning in the final Lance Collard hearing flew in the face of the AFL’s crackdown on anti-gay discrimination.
More broadly, the AFL is set to scrap its unsuccessful opening round concept.
“Fair to say, it hasn’t been (the) best week,” the league’s general manager of football performance Greg Swann said.
The AFL took the rare step of putting Swann up at a Monday afternoon media conference, following the two AFL Review Centre controversies.
While the ARC made the right call on Rowan Marshall’s mark against West Coast, Swann said 55 seconds was too long a delay before the call was made on the St Kilda player.
He added the wrong call was made when a late goal was paid to GWS’s Xavier O’Halloran, even though North Melbourne player Griffin Logue touched the ball.
The Marshall incident has prompted a change in which the ARC will only intervene in scores — other than looking at every goal as the ball goes back to the centre — if an umpire asks for a review.
“There are two issues – was it right? Yes. Did it take too long? Yes, it took too long,” Swann said.
“There’s a balance between getting it right and … affecting the fabric or flow of the game.”
The ARC was given more power to intervene in scores after the 2023 Ben Keays debacle, which effectively cost Adelaide a finals berth when a goal was called a behind.
Swann said the Keays controversy was discussed on Monday before the AFL decided to change the ARC process.
“If it looks like there’s a problem … they (umpires) can call to have the review. But they’ll be the ones in control, not the ARC directly in control,” Swann said.
Swann added the Collard appeal hearing result was “disappointing” and the appeal board would have a new chairman in the next few days.
Uproar arose when the appeal board reduced Collard’s penalty and said in its reasoning that anti-gay, sexist or racist language was “commonplace” in the game.
Also last week, Butters’ fine for umpire abuse was overturned on appeal because tribunal jury member Jason Johnson was driving a car during some of the hearing.
Swann said the tribunal system would be reviewed at season’s end.
“Obviously with the appeal, again, we will make sure (that) doesn’t happen again,” he said.
“Certainly all these things are up for review. There’s a whole lot of stuff around that space.
‘It’s become very legal. Do we bring it back to footy — there’s the incident versus KCs at 20 paces, the arguments go forever and a day around all sorts of things.”
Amid a raft of rule changes brought in for this season, Swann also defended the standard of the umpiring.
“If you take away the ARC issues, most of the feedback we’ve had from clubs is that the umpiring has been as good as it’s been for a long time,” he said.
“The change in the way the game is playing has helped that, even the last touch (rule).”
