THE AFL should adopt the approach taken by every other sporting code, whereby coaches and the public are kept separate on game day, says Geelong’s Chris Scott and St Kilda’s Alan Richardson.

The coaches’ comments come in the wake of an incident on Thursday night at Adelaide Oval, where Richmond coach Damien Hardwick had an altercation with a Crows fan.

The incident occurred after the match, as Hardwick walked from the coaches’ box to the ground — a route that can only be taken through the hostile crowd.

“If you can — like every other sport in the world — keep them away,” Richardson said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.

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“In my experience, when people come from overseas … they can’t believe that we walk through the crowd as coaches.”

While Richardson didn’t condone Hardwick’s remonstration, he suggested that it was incumbent upon fans to be respectful.

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“He’s trying to get his thoughts together and what he’s going to say to the players, potentially, and there’s someone just in his ear — evidently it wasn’t that bad — but I think the crowd should respect the coaches,” Richardson said.

“How are we going if we just accept that that’s OK? Why don’t we say, ‘Listen the coaches are coaching, show a bit of respect there, particularly when you’re that close’.”

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Chris Scott echoed Richardson’s sentiments and suggested the member of the public would be remorseful for his actions.

“I suspect that guy will be embarrassed. (Adelaide) had won the game … bad winners are hard to take,” Scott said.

“I assume that he’s a parent, so I think he’d be sitting back going, ‘Do I really want my kid seeing me behave like this?’ Now if he doesn’t think that way, we’ve got a problem.”

Scott said Hardwick should have held his tongue, but understood how difficult that could be given the often combative nature of coaches.

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Despite this, the Geelong coach — who was in a jovial mood despite coming straight from the MCG where his side lost by one point — said he often found input from the crowd funny.

“When you’re walking through, on lots of occasions I’ve laughed at some of the things that have been said,” Scott said.

“They’re a little bit cutting, but they’re pretty funny too.

“Generally when you win you’re OK. It’s hard when you’ve lost.”