OUT-GOING Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has called for the AFL to impose harsher penalties on financially struggling clubs that fail to prosper despite special assistance.

Kennett, who officially recommended vice-president Andrew Newbold as his successor on Friday, said he wasn't opposed to clubs being assisted by the League when it came to staying financially afloat.

However, he believes the AFL should intervene when clubs don't make use of the assistance, and should go as far as sacking the club's current administration if it fails to meet established benchmarks.

"Where a club needs special assistance for a period of time, not only should that special assistance and perhaps the dividend have conditions attached to it, but KPIs (key performance indicators) should be clearly set," he said, during his president's lunch address ahead of Saturday's clash with Port Adelaide at the MCG.

"So, if over the next five years that board does not achieve those KPIs and that is bring about a greater independence, then the AFL should be prepared to remove that board and put in place two or three what I would call commissioners for two or three years to get that club back on its feet.

"There's not much point just trying to paper over some very real issues the League has at the moment.

"Give the boards that are there the opportunity over the next five years, when they need special assistance, but if they don't deliver, what is the penalty imposed? Is it we just put in more money?

"I happen to believe that boards have got to be responsible for their own operations, so I feel very, very strongly if we're working towards sustainability, we've got to establish some KPIs and if they don't achieve those KPIs, the penalty is that the board goes and a group of commissioners appointed by the AFL goes in for a period of time."

Kennett also drew attention to the issue of clubs failing to recoup costs of opening a stadium for a game that draws a low crowd, and said it was "wrong and inappropriate" that sometimes clubs had to actually pay ground management the difference.

He said the AFL should use part of the money it received from the landmark $1.25 billion broadcast rights to cover those discrepancies.
  
"I would like to see of this new revenue, I think there should be a pool of money retained within the AFL that gives them the opportunity then to pick up the loss of any game that they have scheduled between clubs that they put together," he said.

"So that those clubs and particularly the weaker clubs who are desperately trying to rebuild are not penalised for staging the game that is directed by the AFL.

"How are they ever going to get out of the situation they are in, if two, three, four or six times a year they have to pay a six-figure sum for the stadium to open?"

Kennett said the AFL needed to use the next five-year period, covered by the broadcast rights agreement, to put in place a case for "real stability" after committing itself to 18 teams.