Luke Beveridge likened the situation to an episode of Fawlty Towers, but Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was more measured in his response to a contentious free kick late in his side's five-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.
The decision to pay a deliberate out of bounds free kick against Jayden Short on Saturday, who appeared to genuinely fumble the ball deep in Richmond's attacking 50 with 23 seconds left in the game, robbed the Tigers of one last roll of the dice.
But Hardwick sympathised with the plight of umpires when asked about confusion surrounding interpretation of the deliberate out of bounds rule, while simultaneously giving the rules committee a backhander.
"I'm not sure whether it's that rule or all the rules to be frank," Hardwick said.
"I actually feel really sorry for the umpires, the amount of interpretations they have to make, we just keep adding layer upon layer, so I don't blame the umps at all.
"Holding the ball rule - how many interpretations are in that? It's not their fault. They have got to go through five decisions to make an actual decision.
"Anyway, I actually think they do a pretty good job to be honest under the circumstances."
AFL football chief Simon Lethlean moved to clarify the league's stance on the deliberate rule this week, stating players who showed "insufficient intent" to keep the ball in risked penalty.
"Is that what the crowd were yelling out? 'Insufficient intent! Insufficient intent!'" Beveridge replied with a grin when asked about the umpires' application of the rule.
"I preyed on the adjective 'deliberate'. Ultimately if you are kicking it out of a pressured situation and there are smothering hands the ball needs to go a certain way for you to clear the area.
"Now, is that insufficient intent? Look, I don't know how it went tonight.
"But there were definitely ones that weren't paid that were paid last week.
"The insufficient intent, is it clearer or less clearer? I don't know. I feel like, is this Morecambe and Wise or Fawlty Towers? I'm not sure."
Both coaches expressed concern over several other decisions, including blocking frees paid against Jack Riewoldt and a non-mark call against Tom Boyd.
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