THE UMPIRING department is working hard to clarify what Wayne Campbell still describes as a "contentious" holding the ball rule.

The national umpiring director told AFL.com.au there were still grey areas around the rule, primarily with the definition of prior opportunity.

He said umpires had particular difficulty applying the rule mid-season, but were working hard to get a uniform definition.

"It's been a contentious rule for a long period of time, 10 or 15 years," Campbell said.

"One thing we're searching for is the definition of prior opportunity. When you show somebody an incident, the general public, I think they can see 'that is or that isn't'.

"Everyone brings a pre-conceived idea to a contest, one is who they barrack for and therefore which way they'd like it (the decision) to go.

"Some people are more offensively minded than defensively minded, so some people don't want any prior opportunity, and some people think the tackle is a reward in itself in that it brings it back to a neutral ball.

"A definition of prior opportunity would be good for us I think."

Campbell said the laws of the game committee would meet next week.

He said they would need to decide whether to consolidate the current rules or bring in new ones.

"The second half of the year there's been some fantastic footy played, so you're only going to fix it if it's broken, which is not to say we can't tinker with things to make the game better, I think we should always look to do that," he said.