THERE has been no crackdown on the deliberate rushed behind rule, despite two contentious decisions on the weekend, umpires coach Hayden Kennedy says.
Kennedy, speaking on the AFL.com.au program Whistleblowers, said the adjudications were a case of the umpires correctly applying the rule, after two similar incidents were not paid in previous rounds, rather than a greater focus from umpires.
Last week the umpires department sent a memo to clubs with vision of the unpaid deliberate rushed behinds, although coaches Paul Roos and Justin Leppitsch said in their post-match press conferences they were unaware this had been done.
"We felt we missed a deliberate in round seven and a deliberate in round eight, so we thought we'd let the clubs know about those two," Kennedy said.
"We coached our umpires, saying we think we missed these under our current interpretation.
"What happens this week is that two very similar incidents come up, so they're deliberate rushed behinds in our opinion."
Fremantle's Lee Spurr and Brisbane's Pearce Hanley had free kicks paid against them for deliberate rushed behinds in round nine, whereas West Coast's Eric Mackenzie and Port Adelaide's Jack Hombsch escaped without penalty in previous weeks.
Kennedy said Spurr had soccered the ball into the goal post from a long way out.
"That's very similar to the Eric Mackenzie one the week before. He kicks it from a fair way out, you're probably looking at 13 metres, and he kicks it in an uncontested manner.
"So, according to what we'd sent out to the clubs, and [were] now currently interpreting as rushed behinds, it's a warranted free kick."
The free kick against Hanley was also correctly paid, Kennedy said.
"He's got a lot of time and space. He's probably three to four metres away, and has an opportunity to dispose of it prior; he draws the pressure, then takes the ball over the goal line," the umpires boss said.
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