Knights: I saw it coming

Essendon coach Matthew Knights has said he cottoned-on quickly to Richmond defender Joel Bowden's controversial tactics to give away rushed behinds to wind down the clock at the MCG on Saturday, and that he conceded then and there that his team would have almost no opportunity to win the ball back.

Knights told a media conference at Windy Hill on Tuesday that he would support rule changes to prevent a repeat of the tactics which enabled Bowden, when the Tigers were leading by six points, to use up 24 of the final 26 seconds of the match at the cost of two behinds to safeguard a four-point win.

But Knights said he would draw the line at allowing a free-kick to be awarded.

"I'm not sure that we want to go that way in our game," Knights said.

"Potentially it could be extra points for rushed behinds or, if you rush a behind from a kick-in, you got to a ball-up at the top of the square."

"I've got no issue if the (AFL) want to look at rule changes."

"If you're going to change the rules I would look at extra points for a behind in that situation or it may have to go through another player's hands before it goes through for a point … a second player would have a disposal before it went back through the goals, otherwise it would be a bounce-down."

Knights believes his players forced Bowden to retreat to the defensive goal-line, to an extent, by their effective manning-up of the Tigers from the kick-out.

But once Knights saw Bowden play-on and retain the ball, he knew what was coming next.

"I know Joel well enough from having played with him for a long period that that was going to evolve, yes," he said.

"Joel Bowden is smart and he's articulate and he knows the game and once he did it once I knew it was coming again and again."

"I had a fair idea how much time was left and I think he might have known how much time was left as well because he'd just recently come onto the ground."

"Once he did it once, I knew it was going to be difficult for us to get the ball back."