Sydney defender Dane Rampe asks AFL umpire if he caught up with Alastair Clarkson for a coffee

DANE Rampe has become the second high profile football person to openly sledge the now infamous coffee catch-up between Gillon McLachlan and Alastair Clarkson. The Sydney star has given an insight into what he was thinking.

Dane Rampe has a long memory. Picture: Getty Images

SYDNEY defender Dane Rampe has become the second high profile football person to openly sledge the now infamous coffee catch-up between Gillon McLachlan and Alastair Clarkson.

The latest incident occurred early in Friday night’s clash with Carlton, after the star Swan was pinged for a free kick for blocking.

“You’ve got your arms around him and you’re preventing him from leading,” the umpire said to Rampe after making the decision.

Clearly not happy, Rampe bit back by saying, “Clarko would be happy with that. Well done. Did you have a coffee with him too?”

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The AFL CEO and Hawthorn coach caught up for coffee in May to talk about how defenders were playing on forwards.

Rampe said after the match it was just a “bit of fun”.

“I thought they (the umpires) were a little bit generous early. Maybe I am just a little big biased. Charlie (Curnow) was on early. It is all in a good bit of banter.

“It (the coffee catch-up) was in the headlines. You couldn’t not be aware of it.

In commentary for Fox Footy last week, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire had this to say after a blocking free kick was paid against Jack Riewoldt.

"Clarko would be happy with that!"

Dane Rampe proved he has been keeping up to date with current affairs in the AFL with this one liner.#AFLSwansBlues pic.twitter.com/u7LKdsX9yU

— AFL.com.au (@AFLcomau) June 1, 2018

“I don’t think it (the free kick) was there at all,” he said.

“They are red hot on blocking at the moment. Alastair Clarkson (is) showing that he does run the AFL. You have a cup of tea with Gillon McLachlan and you can change the entire rules.”

Following his side’s loss to Hawthorn last month, Clarkson was very vocal in his comments about how the Swans had defended his forwards.

In the aftermath of the loss, he said the Swans had gotten away with “blue murder”.

He went on to elaborate on those comments in the coming days when he said Sydney’s well-drilled defence and a shift in the interpretation of the blocking rule were killing off key forwards.

“I watch a game last week where Dane Rampe’s playing on Ben Brown … there’s only one way that he can actually defend in that manner, he’s not actually defending the ball, he’s defending the body,” Clarkson told 3AW.

Dane Rampe has a long memory. Picture: Getty Images

“It’s a very sophisticated defence, it’s very disciplined, it’s very well coached and it’s very adhered to by the Sydney defenders, but in my view their defenders aren’t actually defending the ball, they’re defending the body.

“That’s why young kids like McCartin and Schache and Boyd and Hipwood, they wonder why they play such great footy at Under-18 level and then can’t get a kick at senior level, well in under-18 they don’t defend the body, the defend the ball.

“I think if we got back to defending the ball, in a manner that it should be, then we’d get back to getting some contested marks … we’re just not seeing that aspect of our play anymore so what are teams doing? Well, what’s the point of having a key forward anymore? Let’s just play little fellas down there, try to compete, bring it to ground.”

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