“Fans are irate”: AFL has issues that must be addressed

The AFL has some issues right now.

The umpiring on the weekend has been described as “disgraceful” and there were also ARC goal-line problems.

Throw in the uncertainty around the last touch out of bounds rule, the constant mediocrity of the stand rule and a number of other issues and there is plenty for the AFL’s football performance boss Greg Swann to fix.

SEN’s David King and Kane Cornes both believe there are major problems in our game and it's making the fans restless.

“I think our man Greg Swann (needs to pull his socks up),” King said on SEN’s Fireball.

“There's a lot of holes in the portfolio at the moment. He's had his time to get his feet under the desk.

“He’s got all sorts of issues with the goal-line review. And I'm not campaigning for Ben Dixon, but he's got a product through his company, Vello, that is crystal clear.

“Now, you’d want a good reason to keep overlooking this stuff if we can get the goal-line technology 100% right.

“The rules have been a constant thorn in your side, there's no doubt about that.”

Cornes: “For years. That wasn't his (Swann’s) problem but I'd love him to fix it.”

King: “But we're making changes to rules we've just bought in.”

Cornes: “Correct. That's the problem.

“I would love him to actually remove the shocking rules - I was going to say something else - rather than double down.

“The stand is a shocking rule. It was always a shocking rule. There was people that loved it. Now you have it in. It means you've got to make further changes to it. And we get the mess that we saw on the weekend.

“Holding the ball is an issue.”

King: “Every umpiring decision is an issue right now. They can't get the basics right. So we've got an issue on our hands.

“And I think we need to hear from Greg Swann. I think it's too easy to hide at the moment. We need some clarity on it, ‘Yep, we're working on this, we’ve got problems with this’.

“Be honest with the fans because I think the fans are irate at the moment.”

Cornes: “Yeah, they're not happy with that. I feel like it happens from time to time during the year.

“But the I'm not sure the five rule changes that we've made, even the lasso sort of stuff which I was a fan of, is having the desired effect.”

King: “That's without going into the Tribunal matters and the appeals board…”

Cornes: “The academies which you’ve been big on.”

King: “Everything.”

Listen to Kingy & Kane on the AFL’s issues below: