THE AFL will change its rules to close a loophole that allowed St Kilda's Steven Baker to escape with a two-match suspension when he should have faced three weeks out of the game.

AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said last night he would immediately amend the rules to more seriously punish players committing more than one offence in a match.

The move comes after tribunal chairman David Jones interpreted the rules to allow for a more lenient penalty for Baker on Tuesday night. Baker was suspended for two matches, with a third match suspended, after being found guilty of two charges arising from separate incidents in the match against Carlton last week.

It was the first time where a player was suspended for more than one offence in the one match since the AFL introduced its complicated demerit points system for calculating penalties in 2005.

Under the system, each 100 points accrued equates to a one-game suspension and residual points under 100 carry over to count against any subsequent offences.

Jones, a retired County Court judge, said it was inappropriate for points to be carried over from a first offence to a second offence when committed in the one match.

Part of the logic of carrying over demerit points to a subsequent offence was that they acted as a deterrent to players committing further offences. Jones said that at the time of committing his second offence in the game Baker would not have known he was carrying residual demerit points.

Yesterday the AFL said it would allow the Baker two-match penalty to stand but would change the rules as soon as possible to clarify their intention that players be additionally punished for repeat offences, even when committed in the one game.

The AFL said it hoped the rule change would be made in time for this week's round of matches, but could not be certain.

On Tuesday the AFL put out a media release stating that were he found guilty of his two offences, Baker faced a three-match ban. This seemed to indicate that the AFL was very clear on what its intention was before that evening's tribunal hearing.

Baker was found guilty of engaging in rough conduct against Jordan Russell and striking Marc Murphy in last Friday night's 43-point victory over Carlton.

Each offence attracted 177.5 demerit points, equating to a one-match ban and 77.5 points carried over to the next offence. Had the rules been applied as the AFL intended, the 77.5 residual points from the first offence would have been added to the 177.5 points from the second offence and Baker would have been suspended for one match for the first offence and two matches for the second, giving him a combined three-match suspension.