Wedgie wrote:What the AFL would do is irrelevent. Their rules are different to the SANFLs which even has a precedent in 1975 when the Eagles were not only guilty of having 19 players on the field against West but the players hid and ran away when a count was requested.
The SANFL took no action against the Eagles.
If a club that has a count called against them and deliberately avoids that get no action taken against them then there's no way a team that doesn't get asked for a count and doesn't try to hide anything will get any penalty.
Common sense.
There really is no comparison between the 2 situations. In 1975 Fred Bills replaced Cassin while Cassin was still in the process of being carried off on a stretcher. His mistake was not to wait behind the boundary line until Cassin was removed from the field of play. As there was no actual play while West Torrens had 19 men on the ground, they did not receive any advantage,
In the prelim on the weekend North received a tangible, meaningful advantage at the start of the last quarter. When you are 20 points down at the start of the last quarter it is obviously important to start well, if you don't kick the first goal you are in trouble.
I don't know what the correct solution is, but there is really no comparison between 1975 and 2018, in terms of the advantages gained my the teams guilty of having an extra player.