Furious Kangaroos to meet AFL
North Melbourne is fuming at the AFL for suggesting the Kangaroos could have helped prevent the extra man controversy in Sunday's drawn game with Sydney.
The Swans were fined $50,000, with half the amount suspended, for having a 19th man on the ground late in the last quarter of the game at Telstra Dome.
But the league has declined to award the Kangaroos two extra points for the infraction.
AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson ruled that both clubs agreed it was an unintentional error and that the extra player - Jesse White - did not go near the play.
But Anderson also said North Melbourne "had the ability but chose not to call for a count pursuant to the Laws of the Game".
Kangaroos chairman James Brayshaw was furious at the implication and was due to meet Anderson on Wednesday.
He said calling for a head count of players at such a late point in the game would have been an embarrassment for the sport.
"I also don't like the tone from Adrian Anderson that the North Melbourne Football Club was at fault for not doing (that)," Brayshaw told radio SEN.
"I think what he should be saying to us privately is, `thank God you didn't call for a head count because how embarrassing would that have been'.
"The thing I railed against a bit last night was the AFL coming out and saying North Melbourne could have done something about it and they didn't.
"What we could have done, I think, would have been horrifically embarrassing to the competition, so surely they're not suggesting it would be a good thing to stop a game dead and request a head count."
Brayshaw said North wanted the league to act to ensure the situation never happened again.
"We're not going to be jumping up and down, we're just going to say ... `we were disappointed that you basically put it back on us to call for a head count' because I don't think that would ever be good for football," he said.
"And secondly, what are you going to do about this so it doesn't happen again?
"One of the things we're saying to them is, if we achieve nothing else out of making a protest, surely you're going to change this farcical rule that was probably put in the 20s, that is far from appropriate now."
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