St Kilda coach Alan Richardson wants an overhaul of the deliberate rushed behind rule after a weekend of contentious umpiring.
Debate has raged about the ambiguous rule after a pivotal call during Friday night's grand final rematch.
With the Western Bulldogs up by four points late in the final term, Liam Picken was awarded a free kick directly in front after Sydney's Callum Mills was pinged for a deliberate rushed behind.
Replays showed Mills was within the goal square when he punched the ball over but the decision stood.
An AFL spokesperson later said the call had been deemed correct because Mills had not been under "physical pressure".
The AFL wrote to clubs at the start of the season advising that a player could not rush a behind "if he is outside the top of the kick-off line and its extension to the behind posts".
But players are also not allowed to rush behinds if they have time and space to dispose of the ball or are not considered to be under "immediate physical pressure".
Saints coach Richardson says the league should remove any remaining ambiguity by penalising any player who deliberately rushes the ball over the line, regardless of pressure.
"When you're a defender running back towards goal, it's nearly the worst position to be in (to judge pressure)," Richardson told Fox Footy.
"He would have felt like he was under pressure.
"I would adjudicate it like a boundary line so that there's no confusion. Don't worry about the pressure - if an umpire adjudicates that it was deliberate, whether it's that close or (further), that's a free kick."
The Saints were on the wrong end of a 23-8 disparity in the free kick count during their loss to West Coast at Domain Stadium on Saturday.
The AFL's umpiring department have since reviewed the game and given it their tick of approval but Richardson questioned whether the vocal crowds in Perth led to umpires developing a subconscious bias.
"I call it 'the noise of affirmation'," Richardson said.
"Our umpiring is very grey ... particularly with issues like holding the ball. And then there's this incredible noise that potentially gives the umpires some form of affirmation, or if you're an opposition player, there's no noise.
"From my experience, it's the no-calls that are the bigger issue."
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