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AFL to abolish Match Review Panel in 2018

14th December, 2017
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The AFL needs more rules, about the rules. (Photo: Andrew White/AFL Media)
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14th December, 2017
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AFL football boss Steve Hocking has today told media that the league will abandon the match review panel format in 2018, instead appointing Collingwood premiership player Michael Christian as a sole match review officer.

Much-maligned over recent years by football fans for supposed inconsistency and poor understanding of the nature of the game, the match review panel was previously the independent body assigned to combing match footage for reportable offences and subsequently issuing penalties.

But today, general manager of football Steve Hocking announced – alongside a number of sweeping changes to the disciplinary system – that the panel would be scrapped, with longtime MRP member and former Channel 10 commentator Michael Christian to take the reins as match review officer.

Where the MRP was an independent body, Christian will report directly to Hocking and the AFL and will be also be made more widely available to media inquiries than the somewhat-opaque MRP was.

Christian will consult directly with Hocking before issuing any penalties, but the process will reportedly take far less time than it did previously.

Hocking claimed this move would help make the match review process far more understandable for the general public.

“Through the recent 2017 season there was regular public uncertainty on the rationale for key decisions, with only a small number of incidents receiving an explanation or assessed via a full open examination at the AFL Tribunal,” he said.

In order to encourage more tribunal challenges in 2018, the AFL will also remove the penalty reduction for an early guilty plea, meaning players won’t be punished on the field for challenging their suspension.

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Failed appeals will, however, incur a $10,000 club fine that will come out of the their football department spending cap.

Other changes to the disciplinary process were announced in Hocking’s conference, including a general increase in all fines for low-level offences and automatic fines for staging, but a removal of the one-match suspension issued for receiving three fines in a season.

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