Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says Alastair Clarkson wields whip on rules

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has weighed in on the AFL’s response to criticism from Alastair Clarkson on the holding-the-ball rule.

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson addresses his squad during the Hawks’ loss to the Giants in Round 5. Picture: Getty Images

For three golden years in Hawthorn’s recent history, Luke Beveridge sat beside Alastair Clarkson as they played puppet master to a remarkable football team.

But the Western Bulldogs coach, who served as an assistant to Clarkson between 2012 and 2014, is still coming to terms with the power wielded by his former mentor.

A premiership coach in 2016, Beveridge effectively claimed on Thursday that Clarkson needed only say “jump” for the AFL to ask “how high?”, a point also made elsewhere over the past week.

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His critique comes after the officiating of the holding-the-ball rule was tightened after Clarkson said the AFL was “shitcanning” its own brand with the quality of football being played.

Beveridge is concerned the league flinched after criticism from a league coach instead of holding a consistent line on the rule.

“Clarko’s got every right as a statesman of the game to have his opinion and put it across but it’s up to the powers of the AFL to work out whether or not they flinch. They flinched,” he said.

“I just wish the people involved in the game would take a breath before they criticise the game and make sure we hold our nerve and don’t change the rules and adjust things on a whim.

“You need more than a one-event sample size to force change and we’re too quick to flinch and it is not helping our game.”

Beveridge, whose Bulldogs will play Carlton at Metricon Stadium on Sunday night, said “he was always bullish about the game”.

“I cringe a bit when people criticise the code. Not many of us have got the right to criticise the code. It is sacred,” he said.

The coach of the eighth-placed Bulldogs said altering rules in the middle of a season affected the competition’s integrity.

“Absolutely it does, because it means there’s no real process to really discuss and risk-manage what’s going to happen at the end of that,” he said on RSN 927.

“We’ve always got to forecast the change that will happen with any adjustment to rules, adjudication and interpretation and we don’t do it well enough and we have to be better at it.”

AFL umpires boss Hayden Kennedy did not respond directly when asked about Clarkson’s comments last week, saying the rule would be officiated as usual.

Clarkson, whose Hawks will return to the eight should they defeat Collingwood at Giants Stadium on Friday night, disputed the claim about his power on Thursday. But he reiterated his hope umpires would be proactive when policing the rule.

This is despite AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan last week acknowledging at least part of the critique from the four-time premiership coach was correct.

Clarkson raised concerns about the holding-the-ball rule after the Western Bulldogs ended Hawthorn’s hopes of a fourth premiership in succession in a semi-final in 2016.

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