Essendon coach Brad Scott has urged the AFL umpiring department to give clubs a heads-up if they plan to crack down on a particular rule.
Last week, umpires were particularly stringent on requiring the ball to travel 15 metres for a mark, and red-hot on calling play-on.
Scott’s brother, Geelong coach Chris Scott, said it was “clear” umpires had a focus on that rule in their game against Collingwood, but it hadn’t been communicated ahead of time.
Essendon counterpart Brad said communication was great when the Bombers “initiate” the conversation – but wanted a proactive approach from the umpiring department.
“Umpires get coached like players get coached, and the key component in there is we would like a bit more information as to what the umpires are being coached on,” he said on Tuesday.
Essendon coach Brad Scott.Credit: Getty Images
“Because generally, what you coach is what you get. All games of footy across the weekend, when the ball was kicked 14m, it was called play on – the week before that wasn’t happening.
“So clearly that was highlighted, clearly that was coached – but it wasn’t communicated to us.
“We’re the Friday night game this week so you generally take your cue from the way the Friday night game’s umpired.
“So we wouldn’t mind a heads-up in terms of what’s being coached.”
Source Agencies
