AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has confirmed the umpire at the centre of the Brownlow betting scandal has been dumped by the league.
But McLachlan has ruled out making any changes to the medal voting process, insisting the serious saga was a result of “human failure”, rather than a worrying issue within the AFL or umpiring department.
Former AFL field umpire Michael Pell was one of four men arrested last month by the Victoria Police Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit after allegedly leaking Brownlow Medal votes on specific matches, which led to suspicious round-by-round betting activity by others on the 2022 count.
Pell had been stood down after the November 14 arrests, but McLachlan on Thursday confirmed the umpire’s contract had been terminated by the AFL as a police investigation continued into the alleged conduct.
“The umpire is not employed by the AFL anymore,” McLachlan told reporters.
“Broader consequences are now with the police because it’s a criminal matter.”
The umpires award 3-2-1 votes after each home and away game, with tight security then placed around those details so they can only be revealed on Brownlow night.
Despite the serious nature of the alleged conduct and calls from some commentators for the AFL to remove Brownlow voting rights from umpires, McLachlan said the process wouldn’t change.
“All the suggestions I’ve heard — and it’s not that they’re not worthy — but they wouldn’t have dealt with this issue,” he said.
“In the end, the allegations go to personal integrity of an individual and at some point, right through every system, someone has to make a decision and they have information that, if they’re compromised, can lead to issues like have allegedly occurred here.”
McLachlan said he sympathised with the umpiring group as the allegations had “wounded” them but stressed the integrity of the league’s best-and-fairest award remained intact.
“There’s damage caused by that scandal and I think the umpires have been hurting but I don’t think the integrity of the Brownlow is compromised in any way,“ McLachlan said.
“There was not any manipulation of the votes and the winner. It was an issue of personal integrity, allegedly, and we have got to see how that plays out.”
Superstar Carlton captain Patrick Cripps, who won this year’s Brownlow, said he hadn’t been affected by the post-medal saga.
“It had nothing really to do with me. It was more of a personal sort of integrity issue,” Cripps said.
“I know there was a fair bit of noise around it, but I didn‘t really read into it at all.”
