NORTH Melbourne coach Dean Laidley will seek to meet and apologise to the three umpires who officiated at the Roos/Hawthorn match on Saturday at Telstra Dome.
Laidley made post-match comments about the umpires' body language and banter during the Roos 16-point loss to the Hawks. But yesterday he said those comments were "completely unfounded and unwarranted".
A North Melbourne statement released yesterday morning said that: "Acting upon information received from a senior player, Laidley made the public comments without following through the normal AFL channels."
The statement said that North Melbourne football operations general manager Donald McDonald had reviewed the match and umpires audio with Jeff Gieschen on Saturday night and confirmed that nothing untoward took place in the match.
"I was wrong to make any public statement about the umpiring in the match and accept that any concerns should have been directed to Jeff Gieschen through the normal channels," Laidley said.
"To Todd Keating, Martin Ellis, and Matthew Head, I unreservedly apologise for any inference caused by my inappropriate statements.
"I will make contact with Jeff Gieschen over the next 24-48 hours so that I arrange to speak directly to the umpires concerned."