AFL advocate Rick Lewis could be the main casualty of the controversial win for Brisbane and its key forward Jonathan Brown at the tribunal.

The league is in the process of reviewing its tribunal system ahead of next season and AFL operations manager Adrian Anderson made it clear he was unhappy with Lewis' role in the Brown case.

Anderson admitted the league was "very disappointed" the case ended prematurely, rather than the tribunal ruling on Brown's guilt or innocence.

It emerged that Lewis could have amended the original rough play charge, even during the hearing itself.

Brisbane successfully argued the technicality that Brown could not be found guilty of rough play, because the incident happened after the quarter-time siren.

"We're very disappointed that the Jonathan Brown (case) wasn't decided on its merits, we would have much preferred that the case was decided by the tribunal....whether he was guilty or innocent," Anderson said.

"I have asked Rick Lewis why he didn't amend the charge....I think I won't go into the details of our review of the incident.

"Suffice to say, it didn't occur to him that was the available course of action to follow in this case.

"Rick, by and large, has done a lot of good work for us ... in this particular case, we would have preferred that Rick applied for the charge to be amended."

He added Lewis was aware of Brisbane's defence before the hearing started.

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