The AFL says North Melbourne president James Brayshaw showed a lack of understanding by accusing the league of double standards in its handling of betting cases.

Brayshaw questioned why Collingwood skipper Nick Maxwell was penalised, but not young team-mate Tyson Goldsack, over separate episodes in which the players' family members laid bets on them.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, while backing the AFL's call in both cases, also said the league hierarchy is "hair-splitting" and the distinction between the two is "ambiguous".

But AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson maintained on Monday there is a clear-cut difference between the incidents.

Maxwell was last week fined $5000, after family members - acting on inside information - bet on the Magpies' captain to kick the first goal in a match earlier this season.

Goldsack's mum made the same bet on her son for last year's grand final replay and, unlike Maxwell's relatives, her punt paid off.

North Melbourne president James Brayshaw has argued the two cases were "exactly the same" and, if anything, Goldsack's was more significant, because it involved a grand final and the bet succeeded.

But Anderson disagrees.

"I can only assume that James doesn't understand what happened in the Nick Maxwell situation, where there were bets totalling $85 as a result of the disclosure of inside information, that's the key issue," Anderson told Melbourne's 3AW radio on Monday.

"Inside information, we know, in sports around the world has been the gateway to serious forms of corruption. We're trying to cut it off at the pass.

"In Tyson Goldsack's situation, his mum had a bet on him and I've spoken to investigators and there is no evidence of any disclosure of inside information."

McGuire backs Anderson's view, saying it is significant that Goldsack's advice to his mother to lay the bet was made jokingly, but he acknowledges the differences in the cases are subtle.

"It is a bit ambiguous, if you like, but at the same time, I think it is quite clear," McGuire said on his Triple-M radio show.

"In Maxy's case, he spoke to his family. They then took that inside information. He was going to be starting forward with the clear intention of sneaking a goal early.

"... Now Tyson Goldsack's situation, he started on the bench."

McGuire said Maxwell paid the price for family members becoming a "little bit greedy", whereas in Goldsack's case, it was just "good fun".

But he said players' relatives or friends should avoid football betting completely in future.

"If you're a footballer and you bet on any situation in a game of football, you deserve to be slaughtered," he said.

"But here's the other point. If you are genuinely a friend or a family member who loves somebody in your family, do not bet on the football - just don't do it."

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