THE AFL has conceded a series of errors from an interchange official led to Richmond being incorrectly penalised for an interchange infringement in the third quarter against the Sydney Swans on Friday night.

"There was a miscommunication at bench level between Richmond and the interchange official," Evans said.

"[It was] a terrible outcome for the AFL and we put our hand up for that and we need to be better than that."

The infringement occurred when Tigers midfielder Shane Edwards returned to the ground after being assessed for concussion before the required 20 minutes had elapsed.

The Tigers allowed him to return however because they believed they had permission.

Their interchange steward had asked the AFL interchange official whether the player was allowed to come back on once cleared by the doctor and was told 'yes'.

However according to Evans the AFL official should have said 'yes, but you need to wait for the 20 minutes to expire'.

Evans said having made that first mistake the official then had chances to rectify the situation before the penalty was awarded.

"Not having done that, when they saw the player step up to go on to the ground they should have done everything within their power to make sure that he did not go on," Evans said.

With Edwards on the ground the penalty was awarded with the ball being taken from the Tigers' Tyrone Vickery, who was lining up for a goal, and given to Sydney Swans defender Nick Smith, who then was positioned to kick for goal at the other end of the ground.

The situation became farcical for a moment as players and umpires did not appear to know what to do in the situation, a point Evans conceded.

"Even from there, clunky and clumsy the way it was then played out between interchange officials and the umpire," Evans said.