West Coast coach John Worsfold feels no need to defend his players over their controversial duck-and-shrug tactics, no matter what rival coaches are saying.
"I'm not sure what we have to defend them over," a testy Worsfold said at a press conference in Perth on Wednesday.
"(AFL umpires' boss) Jeff Gieschen said that all the tackles were high."
Still fuming following his side's 25-point loss to the Eagles at Subiaco last weekend, North Melbourne coach Brad Scott spoke to AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson on Wednesday to seek clarification over the issue of West Coast players milking free kicks for high tackles.
The Eagles have won 58 free kicks for high tackles this season, 15 more than next-placed Fremantle. West Coast won the free-kick count 29-15 against the Kangaroos.
West Coast duo Ashton Hams and Luke Shuey have been awarded the most frees for head-high contact in the league this season.
Scott failed to front for his scheduled 10:00am press conference on Wednesday as assistant coach Darren Crocker was quizzed on the coach's absence.
Crocker mistakenly told reporters Scott was having a meeting with Anderson, but a club spokesperson later clarified Scott had been on the phone to Gieschen on Wednesday as Scott continued to argue his case.
"A lot of those free kicks were actually there because ... most of the guys who infringed were our younger players who didn't go low enough and didn't employ the right technique," Crocker conceded.
But he added: "It's the ones where perhaps they just drop at a knee and shrug the shoulders and all of a sudden the tackle becomes high.
"There's a couple of Eagles players who do it very well."
Worsfold brushed aside the growing opposition voiced by rival clubs, including Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson, to his side's tactics.
"(I'm) not mystified because there's a lot of people that have got to keep jobs in footy and they need something to talk about," Worsfold said in an apparent swipe at the media.
"It's not the biggest issue in the game that I've ever dealt with. It's just there.
"I'm happy to listen to it all play out.
"It makes no difference to the way we go about our footy.
"If you feel a hand across your head, you can make it known to the umpire that you're getting hit high."
Worsfold said his players were not receiving instructions on how to milk high free kicks and he denied they were dropping low to make the tackles look dangerous.
"If you can show me some vision of a player who's on his knees, I'd be surprised," Worsfold said.
"We haven't talked about it in the club except for answering questions from outside people about things that we're mystified about.
"It's the Bermuda triangle. Someone will work it out one day."
Worsfold said the fuss over the issue was putting pressure on umpires ahead of Saturday's round-seven clash at Docklands against Essendon.
"I would hope they still pay high tackles, because that's the rules of the game," he said.
AAP
Tags: australian-football-league, sport, perth-6000, wa, australia First posted May 09, 2012 19:42:35
The West Coast Eagles has refused to speculate on the possibility of extending coach John Worsfold's contract with the club.