The AFL’s new umpires boss has swiftly slammed the door shut on the concept of a potential send-off rule.
And in an exclusive interview with Channel 7, Steve McBurney has also cleared up one of the game’s oldest myths, while revealing the challenges behind Brownlow Medal voting.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: AFL umpires boss slams door on send-off rule.
Stream analysis, local footy and the biggest moments free on 7plus 
Former umpire McBurney is responsible for more than 200 AFL officials and he has told 7NEWS that umpires are finally trending towards full-time positions.
Seven News understands that a field umpire can earn up to $200,000 a season.
“I think we’re nearly there with quite a number of the field umpires, they’ve chosen AFL umpiring as their primary occupation,” McBurney told 7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary.
“They spend more time than they ever have, certainly than I did, at clubs doing clubs visits and clubs are desperate to have umpires there.”
McBurney is only a fortnight into his new role and he’s not afraid to stamp himself.
The concept of a send-off rule was raised this week by highly regarded Sydney coach John Longmire, but McBurney was having none of it.
“For send-offs, that exists at every level below AFL but there’s no plan to bring it back into the AFL,” he said.
McBurney has also spoken about what Cleary calls “one of the game’s oldest myths”.
And that myth is what many people call the AFL’s “rule of the week”.
There is a wide-spread among AFL fans that umpires get together during the week, discuss a rule that needs tightening, and that rule then becomes a sharp focus in the next round.
But under McBurney’s watch there will be no microscope on a specific weekly rule.
“I’ve been looking for this rule of the week for the 21 years I’ve umpired,” McBurney said.
“And maybe I wasn’t paying attention at coaching sessions because I never saw the memo with ‘rule of the week’.
“We will show examples every week and if we’ve gone too far one week, we just need to adjust it and get the middle ground.”
But he stressed there was no such thing as “rule of the week”
Another issue that was raised last year is around Brownlow Medal voting, with fans wondering why umpires don’t have access to match statistics when they do their votes.
Those calls came after Lachie Neale won his second Brownlow and received three votes in games where his performance was questionable.
One of those games was in round 6, Neale was just OK, but GWS midfielder Josh Kelly had a whopping 41 disposals while Neale’s teammates Charlie Cameron booted seven goals.
Neale, however, go the three votes and social media exploded.
But McBurney has confirmed that umpires still won’t have access to stats when voting for the Brownlow.
“The Brownlow’s a time-honoured tradition. We want the umpires to adjudicate best and fairest,” he said.
“They understand their responsibility, they take it really seriously, they do it in a confidential setting.”
McBurney has made an immediate impact with the maligned score review system as well.
The common complaint about score reviews is that there are too many and they take too long.
But score reviews have already reduced from more than 20 in Round 4 to just seven last week.
“We’re really happy with what we’ve seen over the last three weeks. We’re really happy with how the goal umpires have adapted to the new instruction,” he said.
“They will now give a goal and not go to review where they believe it’s a goal.
“Score reviews dropped to seven on the weekend and only four were goal umpire initiated reviews and that compares to over 20 in rounds three and four.”
