'The system is a joke': Nathan Brown calls for change to AFL tribunal after three suspensions upheld

Two-time All Australian Nathan Brown has described the AFL tribunal's system as a "joke" after three suspensions handed down by the match review officer were upheld.

Charlie Cameron, Toby Bedford and Alex Davies were given three match bans from incidents over the weekend, which have been "universally" condemned, according to Brown.

Cameron and Bedford are set to head to the appeals board on Thursday afternoon.

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"Normally you've got a lot of people who are either on one side of the fence or the other," Brown told Nine's Today.

"Universally these decisions have been condemned.

"The tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson said a reasonable player in this situation would have acted in three different ways.

"If you have a split second ... I'd love to meet the person who is reasonable enough to act in three different ways when you're tackling somebody.

"A lot of these people played football many, many years ago (who are) making these decisions. The game is so fast (now)."

Brown took umbrage with Bedford's suspension in particular after his dangerous tackle on Richmond's Tim Taranto.

During the final quarter of the Giants' 24-point win over the Tigers, Bedford took Taranto to ground, but his head slammed into the ground during the process.

"This system is a joke. We can't have players like Toby Bedford out of the game," Brown continued.

"He got three weeks... the system is broken, it needs to change, we can't have people missing AFL games for what Toby Bedford and others have done this week. It's a joke.

"You're just not going to tackle in the end. Players are going to go in and say, 'I don't want to get suspended, I'm not going to tackle, I'm not even going to bother with that' - and then you get in trouble.

"You'll have your teammates looking at you going 'why aren't you tackling', the crowd will go 'why isn't this young man putting his head over the football', your coaches will be going 'what is going on'.

"Everybody is confused. You know what confusion does? That creates injuries, that puts you in situations where you don't really want to be and you don't understand why you're there and then injuries are going to happen, accidents will happen."

The AFL Players' Association has also spoken out, calling for clarity over the dangerous tackle suspensions to Cameron and Bedford.

"They are genuinely confused as to what is and isn't permissible in a tackle," players representative Brett Murphy said.

"We have six weeks until finals and there is a playing group who are unclear as to what the rules are and confused and anxious, genuinely anxious … players have told us they feel as though they are up against it. They play the game in good faith and there is a risk that might [be penalised] for something they did not feel was a sanctionable offence."