THE AFL umpiring department have heard little from Collingwood for the last year, but coach Mick Malthouse says silence should not be confused with acceptance.
The Magpies were certainly in contact with umpires director Jeff Gieschen after their loss on Friday night to the Brisbane Lions as they sought clarification on several decisions.
Malthouse said he had previously taken the approach of former coach Denis Pagan in dealing with the league over umpiring.
"I was interested in his (Gieschen's) comments this morning, to suggest that I hadn't been there for 12 months and therefore everything was right," Malthouse said.
"I used Denis Pagan's philosophy last year, that it doesn't make any difference.
"They're quite prepared to listen, there's no doubt about that, but it (going to the umpires) doesn't change the result.
"And we're not looking for result change, we're just looking to make sure we can educate our players, if they've done something wrong regularly, we just can't have those players in the side.
"We've got a lot more young players ... playing in key positions ... we want to see what's right and what's wrong."
Malthouse agrees with the opinion that rules changes are making the game tougher for defenders.
He says there can be a balance, pointing to Sydney's classic 2005 Grand Final win over West Coast.
"If we really want to have a look at a great game, go no further than the 2005 Grand Final," he said.
"I know they're the best umpires and the best two sides ... but that was such a great contest - both ends of the ground, through the middle, minimum number of free kicks paid.
"The umpires were there to make sure the blatant ones weren't there, it was just a wonderful game to watch, so enjoyable."
But Malthouse also stresses he is not advocating less free kicks - if they are there, then pay them.
"You can go out and strangle blokes all day, you deserved to be free-kicked," he said.
"We've just got to be careful ... one of the things I keep hearing from the AFL is that we need more competition or more contests.
"If we're going to have more contests, we've got to have a legitimate contest that isn't hindered by perhaps ... changing the rules too much, where it's clearly going to disadvantage one part of it."
Meanwhile, Malthouse might create a commentator's nightmare this Sunday when his team plays Richmond at the MCG.
Young key defender Nathan Brown has impressed so far this season with his efforts on Fremantle star Matthew Pavlich and Brisbane big man Jonathan Brown.
When asked who his next opponent might be, Malthouse joked: "It might be Nathan Brown ... happy reporting on that."
