The AFL will trial four field umpires in a home-and-away match for the first time on Saturday night with "an eye to the future", according to CEO Gillon McLachlan.
The game between the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast at the Gabba will serve as the test case and is the strongest indication yet that the days of three-umpire system are numbered after being introduced in 1994.
McLachlan said the welfare and longevity of umpires were a major reason behind the experiment and the league also wanted to make their jobs easier.
"Ultimately we're doing it because umpiring is incredibly important ... can four umpires get better angles and help their ability to make the right decisions?" McLachlan said.
"The other part of it is does it reduce the running burden and [it] can look to the future about longevity of our best umpires and also the fact that they may even be able to do two games in a weekend."
Four field umpires were trialled in this year's NAB Challenge and, earlier, in a one-off practice-match series in 2005.
Saturday's trial will be the first of five or six matches in which four umpires will control the game, according to a News Corp report.
Football operations boss Mark Evans told The Australian that no official decision had been made beyond 2015, "but it makes sense that we would again trial the system in the 2016 pre-season".
"What we did find in the pre-season trial is that the level of intensity, the amount of intense running, dropped away significantly," he said. "So if you're sprinting less, that's got to create better decision-making.
"In the NAB Challenge, there were fewer missed free kicks and there was the same amount of unwarranted free kicks. So having an extra set of eyes resulted in fewer mistakes.
"We think there is one free kick per game just out of the centre bounce that we would pick up with another umpire."
The Lions and the Suns were reportedly told of the AFL's decision on Monday, and the four umpires told on Monday night.
Evans said there would be big costs involved with adding a fourth umpire to each game.
"If it's not doable financially next year, we'll have to try to have it in train for the first year of the next television broadcast rights deal [2017)]" he said.
With Claire Siracusa
