Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n WHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n \u201cThe holding ball rule is like chook lotto. I sit there and don\u2019t know half the time what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cA guy with an arm pinned, waiting for the ball to be called for a stoppage or the other option is a dump tackle. Just blow the whistle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019ve completely gone away from secondary stoppages because we think it kills the game.<\/p>\n Umpire leaves the field after collision | 00:38<\/p>\n \u201cAt least be consistent in your interpretation throughout the whole game.\u201d<\/p>\n Hardwick said it has been a challenge to coach around the stoppages when he is unsure what will and won\u2019t be paid as free kicks.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to get angry, it\u2019s Saturday, I want to go home and have a beer and relax on the couch. But let\u2019s just fix it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe interpretation can\u2019t change. Be consistent on that and we\u2019ll work through with our players.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when Rowell is in a 50-50 grapple, grabs the ball and is immediately tackled, are we blowing the whistle or are we not?<\/p>\n \u201cThe inconsistency is going to drive us insane. Secondary stoppages are OK, we don\u2019t want to completely eradicate the rucks.\u201d<\/p>\n The Suns midfield was largely outplayed by Essendon in the absence of Noah Anderson and will have to find a solution before next week\u2019s clash with Hawthorn with the Gold Coast skipper still recovering from appendix surgery.<\/p>\n Brad Scott: ‘Cry me a river!’ | 06:41<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just post-surgery it takes time obviously you can\u2019t sweat for a period of time,\u201d Hardwick said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did a little jog around today.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a very good player so you can imagine me, I\u2019m dying to get him back but also from a medical point of view he\u2019s got to be cleared so it\u2019s probably less likely than more likely he plays but I\u2019ll be doing everything (I can) \u2026 just to make sure he gets up to play.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the performance which left Hardwick wanting more from his group, the Suns coach was still pleased to see his side find a way to hold on for a close victory and was confident his side will peak when it matters most.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not playing our best footy now. We don\u2019t need to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to be winning and we ticked off one of those today but more importantly we\u2019ve got to make sure that our best side is firing towards the middle and back end of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not quite clicking at the moment but we think we\u2019re not too far away.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast Suns coach Damien Hardwick has called for clarity surrounding the holding the ball interpretation after being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,689,45716,60445,60471,696,298570,14385,2485,9130,43,298571,12157,44,25844,677,701,298572,36865,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-615146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","10":"tag-back-end","11":"tag-ball-interpretation","12":"tag-ball-rule","13":"tag-brad-scott","14":"tag-chook-lotto","15":"tag-damien-hardwick","16":"tag-gold-coast","17":"tag-gold-coast-suns","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-holding-ball-rule","20":"tag-matt-rowell","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-noah-anderson","23":"tag-oceania","24":"tag-queensland","25":"tag-secondary-stoppages","26":"tag-suns-coach","27":"tag-top-news","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-topnews","30":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
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