Carlton coach Michael Voss said it would've been "common sense" to have stopped play after Blues defender Lachie Cowan collided with a field umpire, which led to a Charlie Cameron goal.
In the first term, Cowan was set to mark a switch kick from Nick Haynes before an umpire came into his area. Lions forward Cam Rayner swooped on the pile-up and dished it to Charlie Cameron, who slotted the easiest of goals.
Amid the discourse surrounding careless contact with an umpire following the AFL's latest crackdown, Voss believes that, given the impact of the collision, the play should've been restarted, and the ball thrown up.
"Yeah, absolutely," Voss said following the 37-point loss.
"You couldn't ask me what the ruling is on that, sorry. Other than if you're interrupting the passage of play, I would have thought it's common sense to make that a ball-up. 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 your general interference in the play and the direct line of the ball, then, yeah, I would have thought the common sense thing to do there is to ball that up.
"So maybe that's something they need to make an adjustment on in the future if there's a different interpretation on that."
Opposing coach Chris Fagan saw the irony in the clash between Cowan and the field umpire amid the ongoing discourse surrounding the "topic".
"It's funny in footy how suddenly something becomes a topic and then things keep happening to keep it going as a topic," Fagan said.
"We've got to look after the umpires and protect the umpires, but sometimes accidents happen, which I figure that was an accident tonight. But I think the things that the AFL are talking about that we've now put in place, I think they're good."
The AFL recently revealed that players could be subject to suspensions if they are found guilty of making 'careless contact with an umpire' four or more times.
