In theory, the A-League's Match Review Panel sounds like a really good idea. The opportunity to crack down on simulation, violent conduct and aggressive behaviour? Absolutely brilliant.

If only it actually worked.

I'm all for cleaning up the A-League (even though, in comparison to many foreign leagues, it really isn't that bad) but I believe there are several fundamental problems with the MRP; least of all the fact that players continue to break the rules, even though the MRP has been in existence for a number of years.

1. Inconsistency

This is especially significant for the area of simulation. In a single round of A-League action, there would be, on average, a couple of acts of simulation per game. So the MRP is restricted to penalising those that result in penalties/red cards. Fair enough.

The fact is, it's often incredibly difficult to differentiate between whether there has been minimal contact or contact that is significant enough to bring a player to ground. Michael Baird's penalty in round 4 appeared to have involved minimal contact, however, Alex Terra appeared to have been more significantly fouled when he won his penalty. Or was it the other way round? Or were they both exaggerating contact? Opinions will differ widely and putting three people in charge of deciding what's what will inevitably be met with disagreement.

FIFA's laws of the game state that simulation is when a player 'attempts to deceive the referee by feigning injury or pretending to have been fouled'.

It's here that we run into problems. The wording of this statement is alarmingly ambiguous. 'Fouled' could mean a number of things. FIFA themselves say that a foul could be an 'attempt' to kick, trip or strike an opponent. So what? If a player tries to trip you and catches you with the toe of his boot or the edge of his glove, you win a direct free kick? Because according to the MRP's decision on Patricio Perez, that doesn't matter.

Also, all those players that go down 'seriously' injured in the 90th minute and are back up on their feet again within 30 seconds are, according to FIFA's definition, committing simulation, so technically this could warrant a yellow card.

Personally, I believe penalising simulation in this manner is a very dangerous path to go down; you're going to be punishing some players and not others. This video hilariously shows some of the A-League dives that have gone unpunished, many of which are much worse than the two dives that were hit with bans on the weekend but could not be punished as they didn't result in a penalty and/or red card.

On a broader scale, how can diving be punished yet something such as deliberate handballs not?

Chris Payne's handball got Sydney into the grand final last season. Was he punished? No.

James Holland's handball resulted in the Central Coast being denied a last minute penalty in the 2007 grand final and the fracas that got Danny Vukovic banned for an extended period of time. What did Holland get? A grand final winner's medal.

Deliberately handling the ball is as much an action of cheating as diving is. If you're going to crack down on diving, crack down on all cheating.

2. Differing penalties

If a player gets caught for simulation in a match, it's a yellow card. If it's missed during the match, they could get a 2 match ban from the MRP.

In situations such as the Patricio Perez one, it's sort of like gaining a point in exchange for missing 2 matches. Which is, I suppose, fair enough in the majority of situations.

Then again, there are players in the A-League who've made careers out of pretending to be rendered immobile by defenders and who escape scot-free. It's early in Perez, Baird and Terra's A-League careers but the likes of Robbie Kruse, Alex Brosque and Sasho Petrovski (wherever he is now) are masters of the art of 'maybe if I bung it on a bit and yell at the ref he'll give me a penalty'.

The MRP should be able to hand out retrospective yellow cards for diving, but not bans. In fact, I daresay it would be more effective if they gave out yellow cards at the end of each round for all the dives the referee missed, rather than punishing a select few players. That way the repeat offenders would eventually get what they deserved.

3. The ref escapes

Why should players be punished for the failures of referees? The referee escapes any sort of sanction. We've seen certain A-League referees consistently making some very dubious calls, where is their punishment?

The quality of refereeing isn't fantastic and the MRP was meant fill the holes in the referees' decisions. Yet if referees consistently have decisions overturned (and, therefore, branded incorrect) sooner or later they'll be reluctant to make big calls. That will hardly improve anything.

4. The mysterious footage...

This week the MRP decided to ban Patricio Perez for 2 matches on the basis that he faked contact with Liam Reddy's hand and dived, winning a penalty (and ultimately a draw) for the Mariners. Apparently, they had a piece of footage that proved Perez definitely dived.

Where this came from, I don't know. What I saw on Fox Sports was inconclusive. Even 442's frame by frame images proved nothing conclusively. Heck, I've watched it repeatedly on my own TV at 25 frames/second and I can't tell. I for one think there was minimal contact and that Perez, as most players in his situation would have done, made the most of it to win the penalty. It happens all the time. He was not 'feigning injury', nor was he 'pretending to have been fouled' (albeit he had no time to, Breeze blew the whistle almost immediately), therefore, he was not diving.

Liam Reddy really should've known better. As a keeper, you don't go near an opposing player's legs right in front of goal. Simple as that.

Players are always going to exploit the rules and the limited views of the officials (see 'Kevin Muscat'). Some are just better at it than others (also see 'Kevin Muscat').

At the end of the day, you can only hope what goes around comes around. Joel Griffiths spent most of his A-League career infuriating people and then he went to China and got hit with a massive ban for his double-fingered goal celebration. Karma.

The MRP is flawed and honestly, I'd prefer it if their jurisdiction was reduced to deciding whether or not to lengthen bans for red cards. All this refereeing in hindsight is too controversial an area for my liking. It punishes people who do wrong once, rather than those who make a habit of consistently flouting the laws of the games to a lesser degree (again, 'Kevin Muscat'. Also refer to 'Steve Pantelidis', 'Jacob Burns').