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.
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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.
“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.”
Scott had umpires at training on Tuesday to help give his players more “clarity” and “direction”.
He noted umpiring was being scrutinised due to the closeness of the competition, with just eight points between second and 13th.
Essendon have came under heat for losing to Melbourne, eight days after beating Collingwood.
But Scott wasn’t overreacting, believing their issues lay in execution, not effort.
“Our footy’s been really consistent this year for the large majority,” he said.
“Our effort’s been there, we’ve been in games. Are we perfect? Are we where we want to be? Not quite. But this is the nature of the competition.
“It’s difficult to say that it’s ‘throw a blanket over 14 teams’, but teams fluctuate from one week to the next. The reality is that it’s just really close and it’s really tight. And little things make big differences when it’s a really tight competition.
“I was really clear post-Collingwood that people can say what they like, we’re far from the finished product.
“It wasn’t about making a statement. It was about bringing consistent footy that’s gonna give us our best chance each week and that hasn’t changed.
“If you look at a lot of our numbers, we’re playing a brand of footy that’s going to give you a really good opportunity to win every game that you play. And that’s the key thing.”
Darcy Parish (calf) is in full training but won’t face Adelaide, with Scott pondering whether to bring him back via the VFL.
Gun midfielder Jye Caldwell trained with a compression sock on his right calf.