Whatever actually happened, it was a massive balls up, and we'll probably never know the truth unless there is an independent investigation.
Aside from that, the rules have to be changed around requesting a count, losing the whole score, etc.
Fairest thing I've thought of is penalising the team 1 goal for every minute (or part thereof) of the infringement. This would be:
- a sufficient deterrent for a team deliberately infringing,
- is fairer than the idea of removing whatever that was scored during this time (as a team could put a player in defense and prevent the opposition from scoring, without scoring themselves), and
- is a more appropriate penalty than removing a team's whole score up to that point (especially for an accidental infringement lasting a short period)
Having a clear cut set penalty means that it can also be applied after a game has been completed, meaning that you don't have tribunal hearings to work out what the penalty should be (although additional fines, suspensions, etc could be applied depending on severity, if deliberate, etc).
Additionally, a team that knows that they have infringed, then has an understanding as to how much they need to win a game by to be safe, should they be penalised after the game has been completed.
Failing all of this, it wouldn't be the dumbest thing for the SANFL to adopt the AFL's 6-6-6 rule. Most infringements occur at the start of a quarter when there is confusion as to who should be on/off the field, so any infringement would most likely be detected immediately at the opening bounce for the quarter, and then corrected without any impact on the game.