Umpiring in the finals

[GrayNicolls]

I think its pretty obvious that the "hands in the back" rule will be put away by the umps in the finals series

Happens every year - they always soften the holding the ball rule in the finals and seem to let the game flow more and not pay the trivial ones like in the earlier rounds

And surprise surprise, it works better............

[piefan]

You get the best 12 umps in the finals (20 umps are gone after Round 22) and they probably got there because they didn't pay trivial free kicks throughout the year.

Its another reason as to why the game flows better in finals.