Marvel Stadium CEO Michael Green has conceded that the stadium’s decision to increase their “visual presence” of security will be reviewed.
Many AFL fans are outraged and some feel intimidated by the increased patrolling of fan behaviour.
But Green says this wasn’t the intended outcome.
“What we have done over the last number of weeks was increase our visual presence of our security,” he told AFL Nation.
“Clearly from your callers and others, we’ve taken that too far.
“We don’t want our fans to feel intimidated by security, we actually want them to feel safe and secure.
"It’s something that we will be reviewing to make sure that we get that balance right.”
Green also says that the AFL is not to blame for this increased “visual presence” of security.
“I can tell you categorically that it’s a stadium decision,” he said.
“We haven’t had any direction or requests to increase our security or policing at AFL events, nor have we done.”
Green also clarified what behavioural awareness officers were and whether they were a new initiative at the stadium.
“They’ve been on all season,” he said, after behavioural awareness officers were spotted at Marvel Stadium last night.
“We actually put them in vests that actually identify them.
“These are guards that have done additional training to try and ensure and be aware of any issues that may start to escalate so we actually get on top of issues before they turn into major incidents.
“Now, we could’ve done that covertly and just had them in normal security vests because they’re not additional, we’ve actually just redeployed some of our guards.
“But we thought we’re sending a clear message to people and we actually want them to be overt and feel safe coming into the game.”
Hear Michael Green's interview in the player below.