Essendon coach Brad Scott says the delivery of extra examples this week of what the new holding the ball interpretation would look like have given him and his players “great clarification” after a spike in free kicks last round drew a mixed reception
AFL officials met with club football managers on Tuesday before sending a note on extra coaching the umpires had received after the league made tweaks around the “reasonable time” and “no genuine attempt” elements of the rule before round 12.
The changes were made after Carlton coach Michael Voss was among a chorus who expressed confusion after a lack of holding the ball frees were given in his team’s round 11 clash with the Gold Coast.
With the change made by the umpires last weekend, there was an average of 2.5 extra frees paid in round 13, and Voss said it had become clear the whistleblowers would be “hotter on holding the ball”.
“It became clearer over the course of the week,” he said on Thursday.
“What we’ve asked for more clarity on – which we’ve got – providing examples on how they see things. We get out here today and we get the chance to train it.
“We have umpires at our session every single week, so it’s our opportunity to show the examples to them but also talk through it. We want to operate within them, and if they’re the changes we need to make and it makes it better for our game, then so be it.
“After a couple of weeks, when teams are starting to get a bit of an idea on how it’s going to be interpreted, then players are generally pretty good at being able to adapt.”
The extra examples given to clubs included decisions correctly paid as free kicks for holding the ball as well as those that weren’t, and Scott welcomed the extra information as a crucial help for his players.
“There were five examples of correct decisions and an explanation as to why they were paid,” Scott said.
“You can debate your opinion of the rule, but that’s not of interest to us. What’s of interest to us is the AFL and the umpires’ interpretation of the rule and how they’re going to adjudicate it. Those five examples gave us great clarification.
“It (adds) awareness of what is deemed ‘reasonable time’ to dispose of the ball. It’s really helpful.”
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