On Wednesday evening the AFL Competition Committee decided on six 'game adjustments' that will be put to the league's commission and executive in an effort to solve congestion in the game.
Footy operations boss Steve Hocking also revealed the changes could be trialled in state leagues as well as 'dead rubbers' between AFL teams not contending for finals.
These comments come after AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan revealed the possible plans on radio on Wednesday morning.
MORE: Patrick Cripps signs three-year contract extension with Carlton
"We're certainly thinking about it," McLachlan said.
"I can tell you there is three fixtures on consecutive weekends that I don't think will have any bearing on the eight as we stand today.
"I don't think there's any risk to the integrity of the competition."
Sporting News' AFL expert Rohan Connolly thinks this is a dangerous idea.
"They may pick out games in the final two or three rounds that won't have any impact on the eight, but to say they don't have any bearing on the competition and that the integrity wouldn't be affected, I think is ridiculous," Connolly said.
"Even for clubs outside the eight at the end of a season there's a lot at stake - the order in which clubs finish for draft picks, percentage, prestigious individual awards like the Brownlow Medal.
"These are things that could all be dramatically impacted by the sort of rule changes we're talking about."
Connolly suggests that implementation of the possible rule changes mid-season would lower the standing of the competition.
"I think the mere fact that you're having games in a premiership season played under different sets of rules is quite frankly ridiculous and I think it would be quite embarrasing for the AFL in terms of its place in world sport to actually even consider that you'd have some games played for premiership points under completely different playing conditions as you'd have for others."
McLachlan highlighted some of the potential late-season games that could be targeted for the trials, though Connolly says this would not provide a proper indication of their effectiveness.
"How is a handful of games anywhere near a sufficient length trial of what are very far-reaching rules changes?" Connolly said.
"Surely the length of that trial has to be at least a season. A decent body of evidence in the order of 150+ games, where you can actually draw some conclusions."
No, no and no again. If there are to be changes as profound as are being spoken of, use the VFL next year for entire season as a testing ground. Don't use a tiny sample, but more importantly, don't shift the goalposts during the course of an AFL season! Really bad idea. https://t.co/PZlDH4ZtMv
— Rohan Connolly (@rohan_connolly) July 25, 2018
