UMPIRES incorrectly paid three free kicks for deliberate out of bounds in round three, AFL football operations manager Steve Hocking has acknowledged.
Hocking told reporters on Monday Port Adelaide's Sam Powell-Pepper, Brisbane's Mitch Robinson and Geelong's Jack Henry had all been incorrectly penalised under the 'insufficient intent' rule on the weekend.
Powell-Pepper and Robinson were both penalised during Port's five-point win over the Lions at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, with Powell-Pepper kicking the ball over the boundary line from inside the centre square and Robinson doing the same after soccering the ball from the edge of the centre square just as two Port players arrived.
Henry gave away a free kick in the final quarter of the Cats' loss to West Coast after falling over the boundary line with the ball as he tried to evade Jake Waterman.
Hocking agreed umpires had been "pretty hot" with the deliberate out of bounds rule, saying clubs would be informed this week that it had been applied incorrectly in three instances.
"The rule is there to keep the ball in play, that's something that we're seeing in the game. I think the rushed behind has done that as well, when you see players making sure that the ball stays in play it's exciting football," Hocking said.
"There's a reason why it's been introduced. What we've got to do is adjudicate that and officiate that better than what we did over the weekend.
"There were three decisions that were incorrect. The coaches and the players will get that information during the week and be notified of that.
"(Our) umpiring team that's led by Grant Williams and James Podsiadly, our engagement and stakeholder manager, they'll communicate with the clubs."
Hocking said score reviews were another area he would address following the first three rounds.
On Sunday, a rushed behind to Richmond was initially declared a goal after the score reviewer pushed the wrong button, while a goal by West Coast's Chris Masten was ruled to be touched despite the absence of clear footage to overturn the goal umpire's original decision.
WATCH: When good reviews turn bad
"Over the next couple of days we will hook up with the score reviewers and we'll talk about the fact that it's there to support the umpires, it's not there to intervene. I think that's a really important call-out," Hocking said.
"There's no doubt over the weekend there were a number of incidents that just took far too long to review and we need to shorten the timeline of that.
"It's there to support the goal umpires' and on-field umpires' decision-making and only call out obvious incorrect calls.
"We'll make sure that we tighten that up for the fans because it is frustrating. When you see half a dozen replays going on, that's just too long, extending it out to 30-plus seconds. We need to pull that back to about 15-20."
Hocking also acknowledged the standard of bouncing by umpires had slipped since a strong start in round one, particularly in the Carlton-Collingwood clash last Friday night.
After round two, Geelong coach Chris Scott told Fox Footy: "They might deliberately be bouncing it the way they are. Umpires are pretty keen just to throw it up."
Scott quickly stressed his comments were tongue-in-cheek, but other commentators made similar suggestions during Friday night's game.
Hocking said any such suggestions were "disgraceful" as they impugned the umpires' integrity.
"Their integrity is absolutely unquestionable and a lot of the things we're here talking about are just human error and that happens right throughout the game," he said.
"What we do as a society is we look for perfection in the way the game is played and executed.
"The officiating part is really important for us to get it right and we're committed to doing that."
