AFL HEAD of officiating Stephen McBurney has rejected claims umpires don't complete skills sessions together as part of their preparation for game day.
He also dismissed the notion of a 'rule of the week' following comments from Essendon coach Brad Scott.
McBurney spoke to AFL.com.au following a media report suggesting the League's umpires hadn't completed skills together in "several years".
All but four of the AFL's field umpires are based in Melbourne and they, along with boundary and goal umpires from the Victorian capital, meet at Marvel Stadium every Tuesday night, McBurney said.
Umpires from elsewhere around the country train in their respective states.
McBurney said umpires were contracted to work a total of 25 hours a week and the Tuesday night session included coaching from their weekend performance followed by a field session that included a "critical skills component".
Just one such session has been missed this season due to poor weather.
"They'll discuss inside what skills they'll practise outside," McBurney said.
"This week we had drills around kicks at goal after the siren, who was to position where and who makes the call about players running off the line.
"Most skills are about running and positioning, where to run to for boundary throw-ins, where to position for the stand rule and keeping the protected area clear."
Earlier this week, Bombers coach Scott said he wanted more proactive communication from the umpiring department, following what he perceived as a change in interpretation of kicks travelling 15m.
McBurney said simple officiating mistakes on game day should not be confused with a 'rule of the week'.
"Last week, we saw two decisions on Friday night (Geelong v Collingwood) where kicks went more than 15m and the umps called play on, rather than paying a mark.
"We haven't coached umps on that since the pre-season. Fifteen metres is 15 metres.
"People tend to overreact to a decision or mistake we make and interpret that as 'rule of the week'."
McBurney said three interpretations had been changed this season – the score review system, holding the ball and umpire contact – and in each instances clubs and media were notified with video examples of the changes well in advance of the upcoming round.
"Everything else we do from a week-to-week basis is us coaching umpires on what happened over the previous weekend and where our interpretations sit," he said.
"Holding the ball, marking infringements and set kick control 50m penalties are constantly monitored. We're not changing the rules or interpretations."
McBurney said a total of 531 umpire visits to clubs had happened since the beginning of pre-season, with 451 of those from field umpires.
He said the AFL was able to accommodate "about 95 per cent" of requests from clubs to have officials visit their headquarters.