There has been debate in the past fortnight over the rules around marking contests, after contentious free kicks were paid against Collingwood's Ben Reid against Essendon on Anzac Day and Adelaide's Scott Thompson against Hawthorn on Saturday.
In the wake of the Reid incident, AFL umpires manager Jeff Gieschen said players were not allowed to bump, block, push or hold in a marking contest.
"My personal view is that if we've been saying you can't bump, block, push or hold in a marking contest, then two of the greatest footballers of all time in Tony Lockett and Jason Dunstall would've been ineffective," Scott said on Tuesday.
"It's not a great development in our game."
Evans attempted to clarify the League's position on Wednesday night.
"You do want the typical Jason Dunstall/Jonathan Brown-type mark, where you've got your opponent and you're holding him out, and protecting your drop zone, and then you move to the ball," Evans told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
"We still need to protect that type of mark – that's great play.
"The difference is, when there is just a clear secondary action that is designed to hurl [an opponent] away from the contest."
Evans pointed out that the rule had not changed this season, and nor had there been an explosion of free kicks in marking contests.
But he said the League had "struggled to explain" the rule amid the confusion.
"The rule is designed that someone who has the primary focus of trying to compete for a mark should be allowed to do that," Evans said.
"It says that if you deliberately try to take a player out of a marking contest, then you'll be penalised.
"The sorts of things that umpires are looking for: if a player's eyes aren't on the ball, if they're focussed on the opponent, then that's a clear indication to the umpire that his primary focus isn't about marking the ball.
"Then what they need to look for is if there's a clear, obvious, forceful push of the opponent out of the contest…if it's just part of the general body work in a marking contest, then that should be perfectly allowable."
