THE AFL has conceded its timekeeping methods are outdated and has commissioned a complete overhaul of the system that has spectacularly failed it on at least two occasions this season.

In the same week the competition revolutionised match-day interchange methods with the commission passing a new game law punishing clubs that fielded an extra player on the ground, football boss Adrian Anderson has ordered both interim and longer-term measures, aimed at preventing another timekeeping error.

Not only will a third and extra official oversee every game this weekend and every game for the rest of the season but the timekeeping staff will now be wired to Matchcom, the electronic device by which the umpires communicate.

The 2009 season is expected to see a revamp of the system with better-paid personnel replacing or supplementing AFL timekeepers — many of them former club volunteers who earn an estimated $130 per game.

Anderson revealed to The Age that international basketball referee Michael Aylen has been charged with the task of a major review of the system, in a bid to make it more professional and prevent the errors that saw significant time loss potentially affect the results at the Fremantle-Geelong Anzac Day clash and the round-seven St Kilda-Richmond game.

"We were disappointed to see those errors occur," said Anderson. "We have the most complicated timing system in world sport, on average the clock is stopped 300 times in a game, but we need to keep working to ensure these errors don't happen again.

"Michael's assessing all the major sports in the world and in the long-term he'll be studying the mechanism of time-on. Specifically he will be reviewing the people in the roles, their remuneration and their training.

"We have many experienced timekeepers and the decision regarding personnel will be up to the umpiring department. Michael needs to assess their suitability."

The third timekeeper and the electronic link to the umpires were both trialled at the Victoria-Dream Team game last Saturday night.

Aylen, 38, who will officiate at his second Olympic Games in Beijing later this year, joined the AFL last week replacing Gavin Dore as the umpires' welfare and development manager.

The role was left vacant after Dore was stood down in February when the AFL discovered he was to face a Victorian Institute of Teaching tribunal where he allegedly admitted to sending inappropriate text messages and emails to a Year 10 student.

The AFL will also continue to introduce its new computer-driven Tissottime clock device at match-day venues this weekend including Carrara for the North Melbourne-West Coast game and at ANZ Stadium where Sydney takes on Essendon.

Its current time-keeping system, Global Clocks, will be kept as a back-up should computer crashes occur.

Matchcom, the communication system that costs the AFL close to $500,000 a season, now covers all eight games per round. Last season the system was used at only five of the eight games.

The cost is supplemented by all three AFL broadcasters and radio station Triple M, all of whom have permission to air umpire's comments during matches with certain restrictions.

The wiring of timekeepers will ensure that the match-day officials will hear each time the field umpire blows the whistle to signal time-on.

The vital 10 seconds that were lost in the dying minutes of Richmond's narrow loss to St Kilda occurred after the timekeepers failed to notice time-on signalled.

Tigers coach Terry Wallace aimed his criticism of the error squarely at AFL headquarters, accusing the league of inadvertent hypocrisy in its vigilant insistence of holding clubs to the letter of the law while not holding itself to similar checks.

Like the rule involving 19 men on the ground — which previously required captains to call for a head count and was punishable by reverting the offending club's score to zero — the speed of the game and the extra pressure on match-day officials has seen the AFL and its football operations boss concede its systems have struggled to cope with progress. In both cases the league has acted swiftly.