After a troubling week off the field for the AFL, the issues bled onto the field over the weekend.
The fallout from the Lance Collard and Zak Butters tribunal cases had led to major scrutiny of the AFL. Speaking on the Six Points AFL podcast, Mark Stevens believes the AFL is in serious trouble.
"It's a ticking time bomb in the AFL at the moment," Stevens said.
"I can't remember a time when there are so many little things going wrong with the AFL, such a professional organisation usually, they get most things right.
"At the moment it's just building from little things, big things grow, as Paul Kelly once sang, but there are troubles at the AFL. The issue is, where do you start?
"I mean, we've got a barking dog at tribunal, we've got a barking mad appeals board, and the head of the appeals board has been sacked, I just can't recall so many things going wrong off-field."
Stevens now believes the issues have moved onto the field, particularly with the stand rule, after the weekend of football.
"But let's go on-field, now, where do we start? Let's start with the stand rule because I've just about had enough of the stand rule," Stevens said.
"I think it's time to pull the pin, let it go completely. There's more downside in this than upside now, the way it's being handled.
"I think fans have just about had enough."
Daniel Harford believes the stand rule is here to stay, but admits it may need a tweak.
"I don't think they are ever going to let it go, they brought it in to make sure that players can move the ball freely from marks or free kicks," Harford said.
"They want that flow in the game, because the numbers say that they're scoring higher than we've ever scored before.
"So that's what they want, they want score, they want goals, they won't scrap it, but there needs to be a tweak in how we play and how we interpret what the stand rule is."
Harford also believes the AFL is asking too much of the umpires.
"Umpires are forced to do way too much on game day these days," Harford said.
"They are asking way too much of the umpires. It's not their (the umpires') fault, they're just interpreting and officiating the laws of the game that have been given to them.
"I'd be kicking up a stink if I were the umpires; it's becoming a bit of a problem."
