AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson has forecast heavier sanctions for similar breaches of the game's gambling rules to those committed by Gold Coast defender Nathan Bock.
Bock received a two-match ban and a $10,000 fine on Wednesday for telling a friend and relative he was going to start in the forward line against Hawthorn in Round 24 despite initially being unaware that information would be used for betting.
The leak led to $40,000 worth of winning first-goalkicker bets after the former Crow kicked the first goal of that match.
Anderson stressed that Bock's actions were reckless rather than intentional and were on 'the same tier' of severity as Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell's against Adelaide in Round 9.
On that occasion, Maxwell, who is usually a defender, also told family members he was going to start in attack without knowing they were going to back him to be the first goalkicker of the match.
But Maxwell, who didn't end up kicking the first goal against the Crows, wasn't banned from playing any matches and only received a $10,000 fine - of which $5,000 were suspended.
However, with increased publicity on the issue following gambling-related scandals involving Maxwell, Collingwood defender Heath Shaw and Essendon assistant coach Dean Wallis this year, Anderson said players had no more excuses and suspensions and fines would increase with each potential case from now on.
"We view this (Bock) case more seriously because it happened after Maxwell and Shaw," Anderson said at AFL House on Wednesday evening.
"And we were very clear to point out again, in addition to the extensive education, the rules about inside information which are a crucial plank of our integrity program."
"So that's one of the reasons why there is a two-match suspension in this case even though there was no betting by Bock and there was no intentional breach of the rules."
"Because we think more and more there is no excuse for players not to be aware of the gambling rules and not to act in accordance with them."
"So if this continues to happen, each time it happens, the sanctions will continue to increase."
Anderson revealed that Bock divulged the information on the Friday before the match in question, which took place on a Saturday, and alerted the league of the conversations approximately 15 minutes after the contest finished.
Bock admitted he knew a bet was being placed on Saturday morning but he explained why it took him so long to notify the relevant authorities about what had transpired in the previous 24 hours.
"It was a conversation I had with my mate on (the) Friday and didn't think anything of it at the time," said an 'embarrassed' Bock.
"It come to my mind probably later that night and Saturday morning, and had a discussion with him Saturday morning about it and it was obviously during the preparation leading up to the game."
"It (the timing of him notifying the AFL) is probably something that I look back on and could have done differently but, as I said before, I was in the preparation pre-game and had my mind focused on that and fully intended to make the club aware."
Anderson defended the league's relationship with betting agencies and said outlawing gambling would push it underground and lead to potentially even worse corruption as the AFL would have no way of monitoring it.
"What happens in circumstances around the world is that most of that happens with illegal bookmakers whose bets you can't monitor," Anderson said.
"We have access to the betting information which allowed us to track down the unusual betting in this case."
"If we were to simply say 'no spot-betting', 'no first-goal betting', we would lose the ability to track this sort of information and we would drive this sort of betting underground so it would be a counter-productive measure."
Bock will sit out Gold Coast's clashes against Adelaide at Metricon Stadium on March 31 and St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on April 8 in Round 1 and 2 respectively.