Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury warns teams could exploit 6-6-6 rule after Richmond escaped punishment in Round 2

Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury says after Richmond breached the new 6-6-6 rule last week other teams could look to exploit it. And now Eddie McGuire says the AFL has to act.

Scott Pendlebury has warned teams could look to exploit the 6-6-6 rule. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images.

UPDATE: Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has called on the AFL to scrap the warning given to teams who break the new starting position rules.

Pies captain Scott Pendlebury said teams would look to exploit the warning system after a Richmond violation went undetected last Thursday night.

McGuire said there was no need to warn players.

He said umpires should simply pay a free kick if a team was in the wrong formation.

“The sooner they get rid of this warning, the better,” McGuire said on Triple M.

“We’ve had two JLT games, a practice match, an intra-club game, two rounds. That’s enough.

“If you haven’t figured it out by now then you shouldn’t be playing.”

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Richmond defender Shaun Grigg said his club’s breach of the newly-introduced rule was by accident — and not his club attempting to deliberately drop an extra number behind the ball.

The whistleblowers are meant to warn players for a first offence and pay a free kick out of the centre for a second breach.

“We could see it unfold up there and we were just waiting for the whistle,” Grigg told RSN.

“It was just a genuine mistake, by that time of the game we weren’t having the best game and the coaches were trying to flick the magnets around a bit, I think there was just a bit of confusion.”

It was revealed umpires failed to detect Richmond playing an extra man in defence at a late third-term centre bounce last week.

Scott Pendlebury has warned teams could look to exploit the 6-6-6 rule. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images.

Pendlebury, 31, said teams could look to emulate Richmond’s move as a deliberate tactic and play a seventh defender to either buy some time or bolster the back line late in close games.

“Our backs were going off their heads and our forwards were screaming ‘they have got an extra, they can’t have an extra’,” Pendlebury said on the Jock and Journo podcast.

“You get one warning, which I think is going to create chaos, because if you get one warning you may as well burn one warning a game.

“It gives you a little bit more time to reset.

“I wonder now whether (clubs will exploit it), because clubs are all over this sort of stuff.”

Any attempt to deliberately breach the new 6-6-6 rules could prompt the AFL to scrap the warning system and introduce free kicks for first offences.

Pendlebury, a five-time best-and-fairest and Copeland Trophy club champion, said he discussed the issue with coach Nathan Buckley immediately after the 44-point win over Richmond.

“After the game I said to ‘Bucks’, why don’t we use this as a tactic?” Pendlebury said.

“If we need to get a rotation or whatever, just send someone back, cop a warning, then move them back to wherever you want or get the preferred positions you want and just go from there.

“You would do it.”

The AFL has confirmed umpires failed to detect the Richmond breach on Thursday night and should have issued a warning to the Tiger defenders to return to a 6-6-6 format.

It was expected to be addressed with umpires at training this week to make sure they keep correct count of the number of players in the two arcs.

Nathan Buckley has called on the AFL to ensure the 6-6-6 rule is enforced. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images.

For the first time this season, clubs have to start six players in each of the forward and defensive 50m arcs at every centre bounce, to help open up play and increase scoring.

But scores have dropped by an average three points a game this season, according to Champion Data, over the first two rounds of the new season.

Collingwood coach Buckley yesterday said he was aware the Tigers had an extra man in the defensive 50m after a Jack Higgins goal late in the third term.

He urged the league’s officials to enforce the rules.

“We haven’t heard anything about it, but I assume there are normal reviews that take place,” Buckley said on SEN.

“If you’re going to write a rule, let’s apply the rule.

“I don’t know if there was a warning … or whether it was reviewed and seen, and it was said ‘OK, how are we going to improve our practices of seeing this in the moment?”