Triple premiership coach Damien Hardwick has offered an insight into the conversation had with the AFL's executive general manager of football performance, Greg Swann, on Monday.
Swann revealed on Monday that a phone call was to be made with the hot-headed Suns coach, who made headlines on Friday night, in letting his feelings regarding the game's umpiring be made known.
Hardwick accused the game's adjudicators of falling victim to Geelong's hostile home crowd, ultimately letting them dictate their decision making.
In speaking to Fox Footy's AFL360 program, Hardwick revealed the contents of the conversation, and admitted he has room to improve in this space.
""Swanny's a cracker, you've gotta love him, and that's why he's a great football person," Hardwick began.
"He's doing his job. Obviously the umpires were disappointed [by Hardwick's comments], and I've got to be better with that. I understand that.
"He also understood that I'm there to protect my players and [to] try and get the game played or looked at in a certain way, but I understood the conversation we had.
"To his credit, he was very understanding of my point, but he made it very, very clear that I over-stood the mark, and I commend him on the way that he does go about it - having the conversation. No need for emails, no need for letters, just a man-on-man conversation. I really appreciate it and the point was very well made by the great man."
Given the form Hardwick has in this space, and the reputation he's garnered for a no-nonsense approach to media, umpiring and most other facets of the game, it was put to Hardwick that he may now find himself on a "short leash". He was typically cheeky in giving his reply, and referenced his mother, as he has done in the past.
"I've been on a short leash for five years, to be honest," he said.
"It is something I've got to get better at. I do wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm a horrible loser, my mother has said that, and she said so tonight. She always says "you've never tolerated losing well," and I've just got to get better at it."
Hardwick offered that his comparison to the Roman Colosseum was a poor attempt at humour, and one that he won't be looking to replicate any time soon.
"It was a humorous thing (sic) I was trying to make, and it did go too far. I understand from the umpires' point of view.
"They're a great bunch of guys. I've said this a lot; our game is the hardest game in the world to umpire. I think they do a pretty good job every week. Like me, every now and then I have a down day, and every now and then they're going to make a wrong decision."
Despite owning his shortcomings in his handling of the situation, the former Richmond coach refused to shy away from his responsibility to seek out "clarity" on a few of the umpires' rulings in the ugly loss to the Cats. Hardwick singled out a free for front-on contact adjudged in Jeremy Cameron's favour as the instance that bothered him most in the match.
"We will go through a few [of examples]. We do this on a regular basis with the umpires. They give us great dialogue. It's more just the clarity around, not so much the ones we gave away, but just some ones that we felt we weren't getting back the other way. most clubs do this on a monthly basis, and so do we."
The Suns also made headlines in announcing they will challenge halfback Daniel Rioli's fine for careless umpire contact. The league has been cracking down on such instances in the past 18 months, and given it's the Suns' fifth offence of this nature, they may be subject to a discretionary $50,000 fine if Rioli's sanction can not be overturned.
Hardwick insists his player "didn't have another avenue" in the instance he's been cited for, and that will be the basis of his club's argument.
