But Mark Evans' decision to stack the new body with media performers is none of the above. Despite their good intentions, both Michael Christian and Luke Ball — and potentially Brad Sewell should he accept a radio commentary job — seem certain to face on-air or on-screen dilemmas, which will mean they are forced to choose one employer over the other.

And it's a problem that could have been avoided. Surely the football community boasts enough intelligent and knowledgeable former players from the immediate and more distant past to accept the autumn-winter commitment for the smallish five-figure AFL remuneration. Surely it's an important enough job to avoid unnecessary conflicts of interest. Or maybe the remuneration needs to be increased.

The same goes for Daniel Harford, who has joined the AFL Tribunal panel. The rotational nature of the tribunal and the match review system means that Harford could sit in judgment as few as five times this season. But he hosts a daily afternoon sports program on SEN where surely he will be faced with situations demanding commentary and opinion.

Given the strict nature of the guidelines put to them by football boss Evans, the likelihood is that their audiences will be the losers. "They can't have an opinion if a person has been involved in an incident," Evans stressed. "They can't have a public view about whether a player has a case to answer or not. Each of them fully understands that and I certainly made it clear they needed to run that past their various networks.

"Because of the quality of the people and the importance of quality people to the system, we've decided to give it a try. If there are issues, we'll have another look at it."

Harford's view is that the nature of his program and its structure should cause him few problems. He offered his services to Evans during last season and Evans appears entirely comfortable with the appointment. The same goes for Christian, who hosts a daily breakfast radio program on RSN and will also call football games for 3AW.

Both men were fully prepared for their media employers to have an issue with their new conflicts but they did not.

Ball would also seem to have a tough task ahead. He, too, will call games each Saturday night on 3AW as well as featuring every weekend on Channel Nine's The Sunday Footy Show. As a match review panellist he can expect regular heat from his small-screen teammates on a semi-regular basis.

No one expects Ball to go close to stretching the limits of his undertaking to the AFL, which means — and again this is the case with all of the above — the football public looking forward to hearing Luke Ball's views on various on-field incidents and disciplinary issues will miss out. It is true that most rookie commentators in football straight out of playing play it straight in terms of opinions, but it is unfortunate that this conflict will make the job even tougher.

The AFL clearly envisages a prominent off-field future for Ball, who recently stepped down as president of the AFL Players' Association. Like his former teammate Lenny Hayes, he is serving something of an internship at head office, although Hayes is full-time while Ball is part-time. The league view is that Ball would opt for his AFL position ahead of the media if forced to choose.

The new AFL regime struggled with Kevin Bartlett's campaigning media style when he sat on the laws of the game committee. Our view in these cases is that it will be the media hat and not the judicial hat that will be removed when it has to be.

But it seems a pity that such crucial appointments playing regular roles in the weekly cycle of elite Australian rules football needed to kick off with any form of compromise.

"Our new MRP members boast four premierships and nearly 900 games of AFL experience between them," Evans said when announcing the appointments. What he didn't say was how difficult it clearly must be to find candidates boasting the quality of the above, who haven't taken key roles in the media.