when you actually think about the logistics of rigging an AFL match for gambling purposes it's very difficult to do. in AFL you have 22 players (none of whom are influential enough to decide the outcome of a match on their own). when you consider how much they get paid, the amount of money you would need to offer them all to make it worth their while and therefore the size of the bet needed to justify such an elaborate scheme it's pretty hard to pull that off without someone noticing.
You could easily rig a set up in AFL , because of the rules , they are very grey and they are interpretational form each individual, it is proven every week when an umpire picks out something and many many people including players and commentators and even other officials are not certain.
That is how it would happen , the rules committee and the umpires , you only need one man /woman to be corrupted to make things go astray for one side in our game.
With 36 blokes on the ground at one time , a great many decisions are called , and they could go either way, its interpretation and ,it would be easy , easy mate.
Now I'm not saying that the Eagles v North Melbourne final was rigged, in fact I don't believe it was. I don't think either at the moment umpires are crooked.
But that game was won and lost off umpire decisions , I don't care what you may think on that, I am positive that several frees turned the game and the North Melbourne players attitude to downward. So they began TO HANG THEIR HEADS. Tiggy touchwood frees, ????????? you could call anything you wanted!
Now in a situation like that any single individual could ( emphasise could) take advantage, and call something weird , but it doesn't matter the Umpires call weird decisions EVERY WEEK!!!! And it is because the rules give them interpreting powers , which can differ from individual to individual that the rules not being black and white and set , can let any one deliberately misinterpret a decision.
Drawing a long bow? yes , talking impossibility? NO WAY . This is the sort of stuff that gets into high level sports when gambling becomes a huge part of it.
Gambling, always lets in elements of dishonesty, and greed .
Do we need a strict control on this , YES! It is proven we do, every week .
Because some hundreds maybe thousands always complain about the decisions, all the time, called one way one end of the ground, and another way at the other end.
I have bet on horses in my life that's bad enough , I have never put money on a Australain Rules Football match, ever.
And I hope it is ripped out of the system , because we have the best sport on earth , we don't want it wrecked. Although we seem to be doing a job on it at the moment . Long shot , is still a shot , it could happen easily.