AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan believes a coin toss "is plausible" to decide on a potential AFL grand final jumper clash between Richmond and Adelaide.
Both this year and in 2015, Richmond wore their predominantly yellow clash jumper featuring a black sash – the inverse of their famous home jumper in away games against the Crows, whose home jumper contains navy, red and yellow horizontal stripes.
In 2016, Adelaide wore their mainly white clash jumper in a match against the Tigers at Etihad Stadium. Not since 2014 have the clubs played a game in which both sides have worn their first-choice jumpers.
"The grand final, you can't have a jumper clash. If the players are in their traditional strips, six million watching [on TV] at the peak, 100,000 there [at the ground], [broadcast] around the world, you can't have people confused about who they are," McLachlan said on Fox Footy.
"Who plays in what jumper and if it happens, we're working on it.
"I don't think there's a home team [for the grand final]. The highest-ranking team gets the advantage of a longer break because you've got to make a decision on that, but in the end it's not a home final.
"I think it needs to be fair, now whether that's a toss of the coin or and arm-wrestle or something, I think that's our view that if it gets to that situation to make a decision you do it in a way it's not use telling one or the other. Everyone understands that there has to be a decision make and we'll work out a fair way to do it."
First though, the Tigers must overcome the Giants in an MCG preliminary final on Saturday, while the Crows need to beat Geelong on Friday night at the Adelaide Oval.
Club great Kevin Bartlett insisted on SEN last week that the Tigers must wear their traditional jumper if they make it to their first decider in 35 years.
"When a side gets to a grand final they should be, and always should wear their traditional jumper, always wear their traditional jumper," Bartlett said.
"Hopefully the Tigers won't fall for anything from the AFL. If the AFL says you've got to wear the canary jumper – you tell them to get stuffed.
"That is ridiculous, that will not happen. Richmond cannot play in a grand final looking like budgerigars, or canaries. If they want to charge us $50,000 who gives a stuff?"
- Kevin Bartlett
McLachlan did not think that leaving the decision to the toss of a coin trivialised it.
"I don't think it's trivialising because a coin toss decides a lot of things," he said. "Maybe KB tosses with Mark Ricciuto and they decide, and if Richmond plays in the gold jumpers it's KB's fault. But I think a coin toss is plausible."
Richmond were in 2014 embroiled in a jumper controversy involving Port Adelaide when the Power ended up wearing their "prison bars" Port Adelaide Magpies jumper top avoid a clash in a home elimination final at Adelaide Oval.
The Tigers subsequently unveiled their mainly yellow clash jumper ahead of the 2015 season, and were praised by the Power for doing so.
St Kilda (2010) and Fremantle (2013) both wore predominantly white second-choice jumpers as the lower-ranked side in grand finals against Collingwood and Hawthorn respectively.
