After the fortnight that Dean Laidley and Daniel Pratt have endured, what's a potentially match-blowing free kick?

Laidley ruefully laughed off Pratt becoming the first AFL player to fall foul of the new rushed behind rule during the regular season.

Under the rule, a deliberately-rushed behind means a free kick to the opposition, meaning a near-certain goal.

With Essendon pressing North Melbourne in the last term on Sunday at Etihad Stadium, Pratt went to kick out after a behind and hesitated.

Play on was called and Matthew Lloyd ran in to tackle Pratt, who turned and fumbled the ball over the line for the rushed behind.

Lloyd goaled from the free kick to bring the Bombers to within seven points.

North then held off Essendon for a badly-needed 12-point win.

"He goes in the record books, doesn't he? - Daniel can't keep out of the limelight," Laidley said.

"What do you do? It's just the rules, you've got to play (by) the rules."

Earlier this month, Pratt and Adam Simpson were fined $5000 apiece and the club publicly apologised for the now-infamous rubber rooster video scandal.

The controversy continues to cut deep at the club and Laidley looked tired post-match.

Immediately after conceding the goal to Lloyd, Pratt looked a bit rattled.

But Laidley was sure his key defender had not suffered from the incident.

"You reckon with what he's been through, that little thing there would have rattled him? I wouldn't have thought so," he said.

Overall, Laidley praised his team for their 75 tackles during the match, but was unhappy with the indecisive play that they produced in the second term.

"I don't like it and we fell into it," Laidley said of the sideways- and backwards-passing during the second quarter.

"In the first quarter and third quarter we took the game on and then in the last quarter it was a bit of a slugfest."

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