GEELONG coach Chris Scott has labelled the way the umpires interpreted the deliberate out of bounds rule in Friday night's match against West Coast "embarrassing" and has warned the rest of the AFL to prepare for a crackdown.
Speaking after his side was overrun by the home team in a tight final quarter at Patersons Stadium, Scott said there had been a clear change in the way umpires Matt Stevic, Justin Schmitt and Troy Pannell had interpreted the rule in paying nine free kicks for deliberately knocking the ball out of bounds.
Scott said it was probably not the umpires' fault because they would have been acting under orders.
REWIND: Umpires to crackdown on 'deliberate'
"I think we have got to be really clear that we shouldn’t blame the umpires," he said.
"Someone has told them to do that. And as a competition I think we should get to the bottom of who that is. Are we in round 20? Was it different to you guys?
"But the umpiring department will probably come out and say, 'Oh look, by the letter of the law they were all there'. Now, that's not true. Someone has told them to interpret that differently."
Scott, who labelled the Patersons Stadium crowd as the worst in Australia and said he would not bring his children to a game at WA's home of football, said he felt sorry for the umpires.
"This is not me saying we were on the end of some poor decisions, because I think most of them went our way," Scott said.
"But I felt desperately for the umpires because in a really hostile environment, you know there are some idiots in the crowd here, they were under all sorts of pressure because, I reckon, they were doing what they were told."
Scott said he had listened to umpires boss Jeff Gieschen being interviewed midweek. Gieschen had spoken about the deliberate out of bounds rule.
"(But) he didn't tell me that they were going to pay anything that remotely looked like deliberate tonight, so I don’t think anyone could have expected that, but I mean the briefings are irrelevant," Scott said.
"At the start of the year, they say these are the rules, these are the interpretations and they certainly said that they were going to be stricter on the deliberate out of bounds, which they have been. But tonight, I mean, all the other teams, get ready."
Eagles coach John Worsfold wrote off the decisions as being just "one of those nights".
"We had no warning about any rule changes this week," Worsfold said. "I don't know if they were told anything so I can't comment on that. I'd be guessing."
Scott was particularly critical of the Patersons Stadium crowd for its behaviour while full-forward Tom Hawkins was being treated on the ground for concussion. He said Hawkins, who was stretchered off, and Geelong’s medical staff had been abused.
"One thing I will say is I would hate to take my kids to the footy here," he said.
"Standing on the boundary line, it is not an environment for young kids, which is a shame because we need young kids coming to the footy.
"It was disgraceful. It's everywhere, but here's the worst. I loved it when I was at Freo. It's fantastic. It's great. The energy here - it's the loudest ground in the competition. It's a great place to play footy. But if you're asking my opinion on whether it goes too far, absolutely it does." Exclusive to AFL BigPond Network
