Ben Brown’s questionable play during North Melbourne’s win over Adelaide caused a stir in the AFL world with one former star going for the jugular — but now he’s copping some serious heat for his criticism.

Former St Kilda and Essendon star Brendon Goddard blasted Brown for ”flopping” in a ruck contest during the Roos’ 12-point win on Saturday night

“Ben Brown, just stand up and play like a man,” Goddard said in commentary for ABC Grandstand. “He’s allowed to touch you. (Daniel) Talia’s got a hand in his chest or under his armpit. He’s not holding him in his stance.

“Why are the umpires buying into that? Make a stand and say, ‘Ben, that’s not acceptable. Stop staging or flopping for free kicks’.”

Goddard stood by his comments when asked about the matter on Fox Sports on Monday, sparking a fierce backlash from fellow players and Brown’s coach Brad Scott.

Appearing on Fox Sports’ AFL 360 on Monday, Scott said Goddard may have been guilty of attacking Brown as a person rather than as a player, and suggested he spend more time in the media before launching personal attacks on players given he only retired at the end of last year.

“The media have every right to criticise what they see and I think when it’s questioning your football that’s fair enough,” Scott said.

“But when you tell a player to ‘be a man’ that oversteps the mark a little bit and starts to question Ben’s integrity.”

“The recently retired players — Brendon’s been retired for about four games now — I think they should probably do a little bit of time in the media before they really start going after what used to be their brethren and their peer group.”

North Melbourne midfielder Shaun Higgins stood up for his teammate and said it was unfair for Goddard to be singling out Brown.

“Browny has probably done what most players do and exaggerate the contest slightly,” the Kangaroos midfielder told Channel 9 program The Oval Office.

“It probably looks like he’s exaggerated that more than it needed to be but that’s holding the man in a marking contest, as clear as any marking contest that we’ve seen this year.

“It’s the ruck one that BJ (Goddard) would’ve been talking about.

“They were strong words, he’s there to call the game but from Browny’s point of view, he normally just has a clear run and jump at the ball and is normally extremely hard to defend.”

Collingwood star Taylor Adams also said Goddard missed the mark with his appraisal.

“Brendon’s comments are harsh because the free kicks, especially the marking contest free kicks, they’re there,” he said.

“Guys are going to try and take away Ben Brown’s biggest asset and that’s his athleticism, his ability to run and jump at the ball and create space in the air for himself.”

REAL CULPRITS IN SLOW AFL START

Chris Scott isn’t expecting the AFL’s scoring drought to last long, suggesting games will open up as the season progresses. New measures such as the 6-6-6 rule were supposed to free up scoring, but only two teams kicked more than 100 points in round four.

The number of goals and overall scores are both lower than at the corresponding point in any of the previous three seasons.

And players are taking the most uncontested marks in a decade, reflecting the adoption of a defensive “keepings-off” style across the league. Scott, who sat on the AFL competition committee that brought in this year’s rule changes, believes coaches will eventually shift to more aggressive tactics.

“It’ll just change to whatever is winning at the time,” Scott told Fox Footy’s AFL 360.

“We had 144 points kicked against us (by Fremantle) in round one That is just not acceptable and not sustainable.

“We were going to put mechanisms in place to change that and we’ve done that reasonably successfully. Adelaide kicked 59 points on the weekend.

“We’ll play other teams that don’t necessarily pose as attacking a threat as Josh Jenkins, Taylor Walker, Eddie Betts and Tom Lynch, so we might play a little differently. But four games of footy is not a big enough sample size.”

One of the game’s most respected figures and a man renowned for staying ahead of the game’s trends, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson admitted he was still getting a feel for the new landscape after his side’s loss to St Kilda.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley suggested the evenness of the competition was inspiring conservative tactics in the opening rounds.

“We’re probably a little bit nervous about what we’re trying to open up,” Hinkley said.

“From our own point of view, we’re a little bit more prepared to try and open it up and that’s causing some concern. Other sides are maybe having a different focus.”

AAP