“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.”

Carlton defender Lachie Cowan was given the all clear after his contact with umpire Andrew Heffernan, who got in his way while the Blue was attempting to mark a lateral kick from a teammate.

“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.”

Essendon coach Brad Scott fumed last week after his star forward Nate Caddy collided with an umpire (coincidentally also O’Gorman) who had accidentally stepped into his path. Scott, a former AFL football boss, said he has repeatedly asked the league to direct umpires not to stand in the corridor as that was where sides sought to move the ball. Like Cowan, Caddy also avoided sanction.

Gold Coast star Matt Rowell said last week that he would not be changing his positioning at stoppage despite the league’s harder line.

The AFL is seeking to change player behaviour and attitudes towards contact with umpires at stoppage. As reported by this masthead last week, there are concerns some clubs are using the umpires as a screen to break a tag on their star midfielders.

It comes after an escalation in collisions between players and umpires in the past two years. There were 63 charges laid for careless contact with an umpire this year before the tougher rules came in place for round 17, up from 56 last year and 20 in 2023.

“We are seeing far too many instances of avoidable umpire contact, and since writing to clubs on this issue in February, and again in April, we have not seen a change in behaviour, and in fact seen an increase in umpire contact,” AFL chief Andrew Dillon said at earlier this month.

“We have an obligation to provide the best working environment for everyone, including the umpires, and there have been too many instances of avoidable umpire contact.”

With AAP