Roos, Scott fined by AFL over umpire remarks

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has been fined $30,000 by the AFL for his comments regarding the treatment of Lindsay Thomas by the umpires on Friday night, while the club has also been fined $50,000.

Scott said in his post-match conference that "the umpires told our players 'well he's a ducker, so we don't pay high free kicks to Lindsay'".

"They told our guys that. That's clearly a pre-conceived idea," he added.

"The comments by Brad Scott, on behalf of the club in his position as senior coach, were extremely serious in regard to the conduct and professionalism of the umpires and how they officiate all players equally across the competition," AFL general manager of football operations Mark Evans told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

"It was totally inappropriate for any doubt to be cast over their professionalism in a public environment without having detailed the facts of what had occurred in any player-umpire conversations through the course of the match."

The Kangaroos coach issued a formal apology for his comments on Monday, retracting his earlier remarks.

“I was given information on the way in to the post-game press conference that I believed to be matter-of-fact, not rumour or innuendo,” Scott said.

“It came from a trusted source and I believed those comments to be matter-of-fact. I was then asked a direct question in the press conference to which I answered openly and honestly. Clearly, 12 hours later, after an investigation by the club, that statement of fact had in fact turned out to be completely incorrect and lacked factual basis.

“The club then issued the immediate apology to those involved and I’m here today to offer my apology.

“I also made another second mistake in airing those comments publicly, when the correct channels would have been to speak to the AFL privately and not air those in the public domain.”