The push in the back in the tackle is a blight, Morgan, and should be ruled on more often, the thing that will happen if the umpires pay the free kicks rather than call play on or ball it up, is that coaches will force players to be more careful how they play the game and we will see less frees not more.
For the last 20 years, coaches have been telling umpires how to umpire, not playing by the rules, but forcing umpires to umpire the way they (the coaches) want to advantage their team. Hence the Cats & eagles ducking, the Tigers fend, the Swans forcing the ball up etc.