Often a vocal critic of umpires, North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson says he feels sorry for officials and believes the AFL needs to make their job easier.
AFL boss Andrew Dillon this week claimed the standard of umpiring is as good as ever, responding after the league clarifying to Essendon coach Brad Scott a "series of unfortunate events" in the Bombers' defeat to Geelong.
After North's loss against the Western Bulldogs last Saturday, Clarkson urged the umpires to be mindful of players staging for free kicks.
Clarkson last month admitted to swearing out of frustration in response to an umpiring decision while coaching from the bench, later apologising.
But ahead of the Kangaroos' clash with Gold Coast, the four-time premiership coach felt it was time for everyone to take a different approach
Two umpires spent time at Arden St on Thursday with North players and coaches.
"It feels like the poor umps get bashed every week by everyone - including at different stages - the coaches," Clarkson said.
"Not that we deliberately try to bash them, but things happen in the game, the emotion of the game. They've (umpires) got the toughest job."
Constant changes to rules and interpretations - such as the stand rule - have made the umpires' job more difficult, according to Clarkson.
"As if the game wasn't hard enough beforehand and now we've just another added another complexity to what is a really, really difficult game to umpire," he said.
"I just really feel sorry for them.
"Anything we can do to make our game simpler to adjudicate, whether it is to do with the holding-the-ball rule, or the stand rule, I think there's ways that we could take away a lot of grey out of our game
"It needs the views of coaches, media, supporters, the administrators of the game to get together into a forum and say 'how can we make this easier for the umps rather than smack them over the head every time they make a decision.
"Even the non-decisions they've got to make is still a decision, to not blow the whistle and that makes it really tough."
