A "frustrated" Luke Beveridge did little to put further attention on the free kick count from Friday's narrow loss to Collingwood, pointing to "blatant" errors made by his side that factored into the lopsided deficit of calls.
The Bulldogs were awarded 14 free kicks in the six-point defeat, with Collingwood ending their evening with 33 free kicks.
A pair of contentious calls on the boundary line late into the game were among the decisions - or non-decisions - that looked to have frustrated Bulldogs fans in the stands the most, with Bailey Dale pinged for insufficient intent in the final five minutes of the close encounter as he looked to pick up possession in a 50-50 groundball contest only to spill the ball over the line.
Collingwood ace Nick Daicos ducked and weaved through traffic near the interchange with less than a minute remaining before walking the ball over the boundary line, with the officiating umpire calling for a throw-in in instead of an assumed insufficient intent call from onlookers.
[Talking Point] Insufficient & Sufficient Intent
byu/PetrifyGWENT inAFL
The pair of differing decisions compounded a frustrating evening for the Bulldogs, who fell a kick short of the Magpies in the Round 2 bout.
Questioned on the free-kick tally and officiating after the loss, Beveridge avoided criticism of the umpires and instead pointed to the errors made by his players that led to Collingwood's higher free-kick total.
"It's not a safe place for any senior coach to be talking about the adjudication of the game," the premiership coach said.
"I was frustrated with some of the blatant ones we gave away. In the end, I just treat it as swings and roundabouts.
"I knew about the differential at the end of the game, but we've got to move on."
The loss for the Dogs sees them sitting with a 1-1 record after the opening fortnight of their campaign, with an enticing matchup with Carlton to come next Friday.
Beveridge could have key names returning in time for the match at Marvel Stadium, with backman Liam Jones pushing to return from a hamstring injury.
The Bulldogs remain without Marcus Bontempelli (calf), Adam Treloar (calf), Cody Weightman (knee), Jason Johannisen (hamstring) and Riley Garcia (knee), among others, in the early round of the season.
Meetings with Fremantle and Brisbane, the latter being in Gather Round, will follow next week's contest against the Blues.
The last 10 mins of this game was 10 mins of absolute proof that the vfl determines who wins games beforehand. There was no way the umpires were going to allow Footscray to win the game.
Beveridge can’t say that of course – as if he did he’d be punished for stating the obvious.
“It’s not a safe place for any senior coach to be talking about the adjudication of the game,”……. says it all!