Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has proposed a "panel of elders" to decide on individual awards such as the Brownlow Medal, the Norm Smith Medal and the Anzac Day Medal.
The suggestion comes as the current umpire-led voting system for the Brownlow Medal garners criticism following Brisbane star Lachie Neale's upset win over Collingwood's Nick Daicos on Monday night.
Fans and pundits were left scratching their heads after Neale rocketed up the leaderboard to claim his second Brownlow Medal despite not being named in this year's All-Australian team.
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To ensure the "right" decisions are made, McGuire proposed the idea of having a panel of former players who are not a part of the media or actively involved in the game to vote on various awards.
"What I would like to see is a panel of elders. I think we've got enough really great former players who get lost to the game," told Nine's Eddie and Jimmy podcast.
"Now, you don't have to go all the way back to say Bob Skilton, but why not? Bobby may be a bit old but … let's get a few of the others that we haven't seen in a while. People who have gone off and done other businesses and things.
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"Get them there, have five or six of them, invite them to the grand final, sit them down, furnish them with the information they need so they're not just sitting there as someone goes past them with drinks, and do it properly so you get it right.
McGuire remarked that the AFL is becoming too reliant on journalists and media personalities to judge performances.
"We're now getting people voting on the Anzac Day Medal who are people in the media that I've never heard of. We have to make sure that we've got a woman and we've got this and that," he said.
"We've got women footballers now, okay, we can get them and we can put together a really good panel to select the Anzac Day Medal.
"I think we're just narrowing in too much, and I wouldn't have the media necessarily in any of these and I'm a media person.
"I see the media these days where (the organisations) are all managed by player managers. They're all pushing up their own bloke all the time.
"So, you've got all these guys, and I'm not saying they're jaundiced in their view, but I do hear a lot of people getting talked up in these situations."
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