Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos has contacted AFL umpires coach Rowan Sawers to seek assurance match officials have no problem with the side's defensive methods.
Roos went on the front foot after Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley accused the Swans' Craig Bolton and Leo Barry of tunnelling – or taking a player's legs out mid-air – ahead of the teams' elimination final at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.
Laidley claimed the Swans were guilty of employing tunnelling tactics when the clubs met in a spiteful round six match.
"I rang Rowan to clarify what the rule is because tunnelling is such a strange term," the Swans boss said on Monday.
"I got clarification as to what the rule is but according to Rowan they don't have any problems with anything specifically that our players do."
"We give away free kicks like every team does in terms of defenders so hopefully 'Hally' gets the free kicks if they're there and if there's a free kick against (Kangaroos forward) David Hale it should be paid as well."
"We don't have a problem with that at all."
"We just expect the game to be umpired as it normally does."
Asked if Laidley was trying to deflect attention from the Kangaroos' embarrassing 76-point loss to Port Adelaide at the weekend – a loss which saw North slip from fourth to seventh on the ladder – Roos replied: "I don't know if there is an agenda there."
"There is pressure on all of us at this time of the year but why he brought that up … whether it was to put more pressure on the umpires, that's his prerogative."
"I can't worry too much about what Dean says and does."
Laidley's biggest challenge will be to lift the Kangaroos after the Port drubbing, but Roos has already written the performance off as an aberration.
"I don't expect them to play as bad as what they did on the weekend," he said.
"They've been extremely competitive and they're a very, very good side."
"They will come ready to play."
As for his own side, big last-up winners over Brisbane, Roos said: "We achieved our objectives. We're going into this game with a bit more confidence that what we have had the past month."
"That's important (because) it's finals footy. The tempo will go up again."
"We're playing against a very good side so we'll have to play as well – if not better – than we did on Saturday night."