GROWING disillusionment with the controversial hands-in-the-back rule will not force any immediate change, with AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou declaring his satisfaction with the new interpretation and the way it has been umpired.

"I think the hands-in-the-back discussion is bordering on hysteria," Demetriou said yesterday. "It is disproportionate to what the rule is doing. It is actually a pretty clear rule, and I think it is being umpired particularly well."

Swans coach Paul Roos repeated his condemnation of the rule at the weekend, saying it was creating "an enormous amount of frustration".

But Demetriou said there was no plan to review the rule and that some judgements had been premature. "I think people should just take a Bex and wait until the end of the year and look at the results over the course of the year, like we do," he said.

"You go and ask Leigh Matthews what he thinks. Paul (Roos) is entitled to his view. He is an excellent coach and I respect his view. But Leigh Matthews is entitled to his view, too and he loves the rule. That's why we have an independent laws-of-the-game committee that makes the rules with regard to everyone rather than leaving it to coaches because you can't get them all to agree anyway."

Demetriou suggested criticism of both the rule and the way it was umpired was a distraction from mistakes made by players. "There is far more discussion about the hands-in-the-back rule and umpiring decisions than there is about a player who misses a shot from goal 20 metres out," he said. "(Compared to) about 50 per cent of the times players convert, umpires have 84 or 85 per cent accuracy in their decision-making."

Roos said his opposition to the rule was "big picture stuff".

"It's not about Barry Hall, it's not about the Swans, it's not about Essendon, it's about where the game is heading," he said.

"It's about the AFL saying they are going to bring in a fourth umpire and wondering how local competitions that are struggling to get enough umpires are going to do that. It's about going to a schoolboys carnival last week and seeing 12-year-old kids in Terrigal looking confused when the whistle goes because they've touched an opponent's back."

On another matter, the AFL said extra-time in the event of a drawn match is not an option it is considering. Richmond coach Terry Wallace called for extra-time after the Tigers drew with the Brisbane Lions.

"There is no move afoot to change the draw being two points each, it's a long-held tradition. By the same token, I can understand Terry's point of view," said AFL football operations manager, Adrian Anderson.

"I can see what he's saying, that to have a conclusion one way or the other and the additional excitement at the end (could be appealing) but there's no proposal to review it and it's not something that's cropped up to be looked at at this stage."

Anderson also said increasing the number of boundary umpires to four was also not being considered despite Essendon scoring a goal after Adam McPhee clearly had run the ball out of bounds.

Anderson said the AFL was rotating boundary umpires off the bench more, and soon would be reviewing the report of the umpiring trials that took place in the NAB Cup this season. In particular, there would be analysis of the use of four umpires and the "multi-skill" trial of boundary and goal umpires.

"There was no dramatic change in their measurement of their accuracy, but we did have a number of rookie umpires involved. We'll just have a closer look at it once we get a full report from the umpires."

After Swan Amon Buchanan's shot for goal hit the post in the dying minutes of the game, Anderson confirmed the goal-post padding at the SCG fitted within the parameters set by the league, which allows for padding between 50 and 70 millimetres thick.

with Lyall Johnson