Carlton coach Mick Malthouse fumes over colour clash and umpiring Carlton coach Mick Malthouse looks over to the bench during the Blues loss to Hawthorn. FURIOUS coach Mick Malthouse has demanded an "even playing field" as Carlton fumes over a colour clash and umpiring in its drama-charged loss to Hawthorn. The Blues protested during Friday night's match that Hawthorn's on-field medical staff had been dressed in all dark brown uniforms that had twice caught the eye of defenders who'd rushed kicks in their direction. It's understood the AFL's match manager fielded several irate claims about the matter from Carlton's bench and that the incident will be further assessed this week. An AFL spokesman yesterday said an official complaint could only be lodged on Monday, but that had the umpires thought there was anything untoward during the match, they had the power to pay a free-kick against the Hawks, or even order the medico from the field. But it mattered little to Malthouse, whose team was gallant but eventually over-run by the league leader. "I'm concerned... the colour of the doctor's uniform is the same as us -- we kicked it to him twice," Malthouse said. So I'm a little bit confused and concerned that we don't get the colours right. We wasted the ball twice to their doctor. You haven't got time out there, you see a dark colour and you kick it to them. It's minor in the overall scheme of things, but I'm disappointed for our player group who busted their guts. We'd just like to think we could have an even playing field. Another clash appeared to happen at Patersons Stadium last night when Brisbane Lion Daniel Rich kicked towards a runner dressed in bright orange, not distantly removed from the Lions' away jumper. Carlton officials were understood to be seething yesterday at a free-kick count that favoured Hawthorn 22-13, but 14-4 in the critical second half. Fox Footy analyst David King said there had been up to 15 dubious incorrect disposal decisions throughout the match and that Carlton had been "incredibly unlucky" to be on the wrong side of at least 10 of them. Malthouse, who worked in the media during his year out of coaching in 2012, was less subtle. "Have I missed something recently?" he bristled after the game. I know I've missed the tackling rule -- totally missed the tackling rule. In (my) 12 months out, they've clearly had such an impact that you can now tackle and dispossess and it's now called 'play on'. But that's a factor, and it's been a factor against us for a few weeks now. We pride ourselves on our tackling and dispossession and ... the rule, I'm sure, says something about, `If you don't dispose of the ball correctly, it is incorrect disposal'. We are a little bit bamboozled by that. The most glaring miss was in the second quarter when Carlton's Chris Judd tackled Hawthorn's Luke Hodge after he'd run for at least 10 metres and the umpires called play-on after the ball spilled free. "You could name one, I could name a dozen," Malthouse said.