"No one playing AFL should be allowed to do stupid things and get away with it."
I don't get this sort of comment at all. Are we talking some kind of medieval punishment regime or something?
Games get totally analysed post mortem, errors and successes are openly discussed, and remediation taken. Players should absolutely know when they got it wrong. The highly visible execution errors that give supporters the shudders aren't really even the big issue. All players make skill errors and there is an ongoing program to improve skills. That program might be changed a bit to address problem areas that turn up but this is a long term project and it isn't going to produce magical changes quickly.
From a management point of view, getting angry and punishing player is a fail. If the players can't understand and execute the game plan this is actually at least as much a management failure as player fail. But it is stuff that can be worked on. Dropping players is something to do when there is a positive reason but "not letting them get away with it" should not even be on the list of reasons. Seriously, it belongs at a catholic primary school about a century ago, if anywhere. If players are "getting away with it" the improvement and accountability process has already failed. It's a football team, not a jail.
