The review was held after Hawthorn star midfielder Sam Mitchell was ruled ineligible for the 2011 award because of an offence for which he was not suspended.

Mitchell's early guilty plea to making head-high contact with Geelong's Steve Johnson in round five earned him a penalty reduction which allowed him to escape with a reprimand.

Because the offence was initially worth 125 demerit points, more than the 100-point cut-off for a suspension, he could not have won the AFL's highest individual honour.

As it turned out, he would not have won anyway, polling 30 votes, four fewer than the eventual winner, Collingwood's Dane Swan.

AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said the league's executive and commission considered whether to change the rules, but decided against it.

``The view was that if an offence is worth 125 demerit points, which is equivalent to a one-week sanction, then that should be the relevant point to determine Brownlow eligibility that is consistent with past practice,'' Anderson told the league's website. Only two players, North Melbourne's Corey McKernan in 1996 and Footscray's Chris Grant in 1997, have missed out on a Brownlow Medal due to ineligibility.