Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said the AFL should stop "tinkering with the rules" following football boss Steve Hocking's comments around tackling.

Hocking said the AFL is examining the issue of excessive tackling to reduce the number of collisions per game. He didn't specify the number of tackles he would like to see per game, but said tackling had become a "feature" of the game and the league wanted to change that.

Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said there should be less rules, not more. Credit:AAP

But Hardwick hit back on Thursday, saying the game has been around for a long time and his opinion was there should be no changes to the rules.

"We’ve got to be very careful with what we do. I think we’ve just got to let the game settle for a while and stop tinkering with the rules."