2008 premiership backman Campbell Brown has, in no uncertain terms, given the AFL his two cents after its latest controversy.
Referencing the furore surrounding the lack of ARC intervention following Ollie Dempsey's shot on goal, early in Geelong's loss to Carlton on Friday night, Brown told Channel 7's Sunday Footy Feast that the code's lack of professionalism in recent times is catching up with it.
"The AFL at the moment is like a bush league, the way [it's] conducting [itself]," Brown said.
"Everything about it is completely unacceptable."
Brown, a 205-game veteran of the code, is one of many bemoaning operational mishaps affecting the equity of the competition, and the viewing experience of fans in recent times, with the overwhelming consensus being that such blunders were fewer and further between under previous administrations.
Over a month ago, Zero Hanger's own Mark Stevens passed comment on the "little things" plaguing the AFL on the Six Points podcast.
"I can't remember a time when there were so many little things going wrong with the AFL," he said.
"Such a professional organisation, usually, they get most things right. There are troubles at the AFL," he added, pointing to both on and off field misdemeanours in the wake of Tribunal mishaps, stand rule interpretations and ARC controversies.
In the wake of the Dempsey blue, revered commentator Gerard Whateley also editorialised the AFL's failed attempts at "stamping out the howler" - the initial justification for the ARC's implementation.
"This is the whole misnomer with technology in sport," he said.
"I don't know how many times we have to see it. It simply doesn't work in the manner [people expect]."
"It's a false prophecy... It (the ARC) could stand as a cautionary tale; football's version of Chernobyl. At every layer, it's [a] catastrophic failure."
