SERIOUS as Tony Liberatore's charge is, it is also irrelevant. Libba called Carlton's strategy in the second half of last season tanking. Carlton called it prudent management.

The outcome was the same: the Blues lost their last 11 games and finished on the bottom.

Their fans did not object. Mostly, they applauded. Finishing last gave Carlton the prized first pick in the national draft. No one in recent history was better placed to understand the machinations of the system than the Blues and their supporters.

It is the system that is problem. It gives outsized reward for incompetence. It is the nature of sportsfolk that they will study the rules in order to bend them to maximum effect without breaking them. As long as the premium on finishing last is so great, the race to the bottom will go on.

No club ever will be so foolish as to make it policy to lose deliberately. In the meantime, who can argue with the idea of sending players who need surgery off at the first opportunity, preserving older players, picking striplings to see if they can play and experimenting with positions and tactics?

No one doubts that the 22 Blues who took the field each week were trying to win.

Some would have been trying even harder than ever; it was their careers that were on the line. So all purposes were served.

The AFL maintains it is doing all it can to address tanking. Last week, it threw the book at Sydney coach Paul Roos, knowing that the charge was unlikely to stick, but that in the meantime, the integrity of the competition could be seen to be proved — as much as anyone believes that the pre-season competition is about death-before-dishonour.

Liberatore is a different matter. Sadly for Libba, he has sounded off once too often for his own credibility.

Most recently, it was against his old club, the Bulldogs. Now it is the Blues. Both clubs have rejected him.

Even if he is telling a naked truth, people will have their suspicions. Perhaps the AFL is backing this.

The AFL says it will not alter the draft. If it is concerned about perceptions of tanking, it must. Its headquarters doubtlessly are inundated with possible refinements, as this newspaper is. Not all of them are the work of zealots and loonies.

Some form of ballot that is weighted towards the bottom teams, but without guarantees, is a possibility.

One suggestion, advanced this week, is that the first draft pick goes to the first team outside the finals. This way, clubs have to win to gain it, rather than lose.

It is not perfect. But neither is the system as it stands.

"The emperor is wearing no clothes," exclaimed Liberatore, guileless as ever. The trouble in this instance is that the emperor's invisible costume is AFL-endorsed.