Carlton coach Michael Voss wants AFL umpires to call ball-ups if they interfere with play after the latest collision between a player and whistleblower.
The Blues conceded a goal in comical fashion early in their 15.13 (103) to 9.12 (66) loss to Brisbane on Thursday night, when Lachie Cowan clashed with umpire Andrew Heffernan.
A Nick Haynes kick fell in Lions star Cam Rayner's lap when target Cowan was taken out, and Rayner set up a Charlie Cameron major.
The incident came less than one week after Essendon's Nate Caddy was involved in a similar collision with umpire Robert O'Gorman.
Caddy was cleared of wrongdoing over his accidental contact despite the league's recent crackdown.
"If you're interrupting the passage of play, I would've thought it's common sense to make that a ball-up," Voss said of the Cowan incident.
"It didn't cost the game, so we move on.
"But if there's an adjustment that I'd be suggesting, I'd say that if you're a genuine interference in the play, in the direct line of the ball, then I would've thought the common sense thing to do is to ball that up."
Carlton midfielder Adam Cerra also made contact with an umpire in a separate incident which could draw attention from the match review officer.
Cerra has had three previous fines in the past two years, meaning he may now be sent to the tribunal under new rules ushered in last month.
"Not so much specifically Adam, but we've addressed that as a football club," Voss said of the crackdown.
"The correspondence has been pretty clear coming out of the AFL, so obviously the first thing we do is make sure we have that covered off.
"It's been something that we've all been really mindful of in the industry.
"Unfortunately the mids are the ones that are probably going to be copping the brunt of it, so we just have to be cautious there."
Voss expects there will still be errors by players and umpires, but isn't specifically concerned about the whistleblowers' positioning on the field.
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge believes there is a "pattern" of contact with umpires at centre bounces, but not around the ground.
"With the four umpires now, they're going to be taking up parts of the ground that they weren't historically," Beveridge said on Friday.
"We're seeing more and more of this, and it's just circumstantial, because of the four-umpire system.
"Whether they pull one back and it changes the dynamic, who knows."
Essendon coach Brad Scott had a far stronger view, saying last week he had repeatedly implored the league to move umpires out of the corridor.
"When you watch the four umpires, there is a way they move around the ground, so we back in that that's coached and it's coached really well," Voss said.
"We appreciate also that it's an evasive game and the ball's quite dynamic and it shifts off the line in a split second.
"We don't get it perfect and I suspect they're not going to either.
"But through that imperfection maybe there is some avenues where we can maybe just get a ball up and reset the play so there's no advantage to any team."
