AFL issues.

Several issues arose from Friday night's draw at Eithad Stadium, between St Kilda and Hawthorn, least of all was the shocking amount of free kicks that went against the Saints for no reason other than the ref's thought it was a good idea, anyway moving on...

First of all: the interchange rule.
Having being the recipient of freee kicks for breaches of this rule and giving away free kicks because of breaches, I can safely say that as a Saints fan I don't have a problem with the punishment. All the clubs agreeed to it and it is much better, and a lot less harsh, than the ofending team's score resorting to 0. I could imagine if that was the case, especially at that stage of the game, that Alistair Clarkson would have even more to say about it.
Regardless, Hawthorn got so many free kicks that night that they shouldn't have that I think it maybe evens things up a little bit. And having seen Cyril Rioli turn his head during his run up for the goal you can't tell me that he wasn't aware that something was happening. He chose to keep going and therefore was lucky he wasn't penalised 50 metres for not returning the ball.

Second: The result.
Yes, as a fan it left a little hollow feeling, but at least we walked away with some points, which at the end of the day is better than nothing. I'm sure the players felt the same thing.
Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with a draw. Yes it would add a little more excitement for an extra 5 or 10 either way but I'm not sure the players would have felt that. AFL is a very taxing game and goes for a long time, a lot longer than NRL, Rugby or football.
No, the draw is a fine result, afterall, if at the end of normal time the teams can't be split then maybe they don't deserve to be.

Third and final: Eithad Stadium.
That surface is downright dangerous. Seeing all those player slip was ridiculous. And we've seen it throughout the season. Sure it may not have been the cause of Nick Riewoldt or Josh Gibson's hamstring injuries (both who played on Friday night after extensive lay offs) but it was certainly was a factor in Chris Judd's ankle injury and I'm sure numerous others.
The Western Bulldogs should be thanking the surface however for helping get rid of Aker though...
I'm very interested to see how the surface will go this weekend, given Eithad is hosting a Bledisloe match on Saturday night. Rugby scrums will rip up any normal surface, and I've seen the damage done to Suncorp, a perfect surface I've heard it called, and I think that Eithad has no chance of surviving. It'll be interesting what happens with the Western Bulldogs match on Sunday, whether the stadium will be given the OK.
Either way something has to be or I do reckon one day someone will sue, I just hope that the injury doesn't happen to one of our players...