AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan is confident that the AFL Review Centre (ARC) will stand up to the heat of the grand final but concedes human error will always be a factor in the score review system.
The league’s much-hyped ARC failed in spectacular fashion when Collingwood were awarded a goal in a preliminary final that was decided by four points when Josh Thomas’s shot was clearly touched.
“The system itself is working,” McLachlan told reporters on Wednesday.
“We’ve got the best technology, the process is better and we’re using our best reviewers, but under pressure there is always a possibility for human error.
“I’m disappointed there was an error … we continue to invest in the technology and the process, but whenever there are people involved I accept that under pressure people make mistakes.
“We see it everywhere in our game on and off the field.
“But we’re accountable for it, it was a mistake, but I understand it, albeit I’m disappointed.”
McLachlan revealed there were four cameras equipped with super slow-motion technology at the MCG for the Pies’ clash with GWS but that none of them had picked up Lachie Keeffe’s touch on Thomas’s shot on goal.
While he said that even more money could be spent on the technology, McLachlan said finding a way to put some of the onus back on the players, in similar fashion to the decision review system used in cricket, was being discussed.
“Putting more responsibility on the players involved to declare if they touched it or they didn’t, I think would help in terms of the ability to look at it with more time, more dispassionately rather than reviewing every decision,” he said.
“I don’t know whether we’ll get there on that but it’s certainly something that’s been discussed internally as a way to help the process to make the right decisions.
“… To put some responsibility for getting an accurate decision back on the players.
“I’m not saying they’re not truthful, I’m just saying that (there could be some) responsibility for actually playing a part in whether they decide to appeal or not.”