AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan feels the public slanging match between Eddie McGuire and Sydney Swans president Andrew Pridham is a poor look for the game and has called for it to end.
McGuire and Pridham have been waging war in recent days over a number of issues, including the Swans' Academy, the recruitment of Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett and the cost of living allowance.
The spat has been held in public forums, including McGuire's radio show and at times Pridham's Twitter account.
McLachlan was at Greater Western Sydney's training base on Wednesday to help launch Multicultural Round, but the barbs flying between Sydney and Melbourne were the main topic of the day.
Longmire won't work with me, claims Eddie
"I think that both of those guys would regret where this has got to," McLachlan told reporters.
"I don't think it's edifying for either of them or for our game to be having a personal slanging match.
"Hopefully we've seen the end of it."
The academy system is drawing plenty of debate, with the NSW and Queensland clubs given access to players raised in their states when it comes to the drafting process.
The bidding system has been under review for some time and McLachlan said a resolution should be announced in the coming weeks.
Fundamentally, McLachlan says the academy system is a critical part of supporting and growing the AFL.
"I support the academy system," he said.
"I've said that publicly and I've also said we're going to review the bidding system that applies to father-son as well.
"We need more talented athletes coming out of NSW and Queensland and the academies are starting to be successful.
"We also have to make sure that's not at the expense of on-field equity.
"The appropriate way to look at that is through the review of the way the bidding system works."
Eddie @sydneyswans voted for @GWS_Giants. I was at the meeting and voted. You must have been asleep in that meeting. Tell the truth
— Andrew Pridham (@Pridhamhq) July 13, 2014It's a stance echoed by GWS chief executive Dave Matthews, who points to current numbers showing NSW and Queensland represent 54 per cent of the national population, but just 10 per cent of the playing talent in the AFL.
"The overriding objective, which I know that Eddie and everyone agrees with, is we have to build the talent pool," Matthews said.
"The academies are fundamental to the future success of the game in NSW and Queensland.
"The bidding system was the reason the academies were able to be introduced in the first place.
"When it was applied to the father-son (rule), it didn't create complete fair value, but got a lot closer to it.
"Travis Cloke went as a third-round pick to Collingwood. Now you've got Joe Daniher going as a first-round pick to Essendon. That makes more sense.
"What Gil and the guys are looking at is, can it be tightened up a bit further?
"We accept the principle that if we find a really talented player, we should pay fair value.
"The best problem the game is going to have is an enormous amount of talent out of this region."
Hit with repeated questions about McGuire's public utterances, McLachlan made it clear he wanted to move on.
Asked about the Giants, he said he felt they were doing "tremendously well" building a club from scratch in a region that hasn't traditionally embraced AFL.
But he did have a response to a question about McGuire's accusations of the Swans taking part in "chequebook recruiting".
"In isolation, if you're talking about Lance Franklin, he's unbelievable for the development and growth of our code in this state," McLachlan said.
"There's no more exciting player in Australia; people like watching him play and he's a star.
"If anyone's going to tell me he's bad for the Swans and the promotion of our game in NSW, I'll take them to task.
