GEELONG coach Chris Scott has called for a tougher stance on players staging for free kicks after Richmond defender Alex Rance was cleared by the Match Review Panel following Saturday's clash with Sydney.

And the Cats' coach has the backing of his counterpart, St Kilda's Alan Richardson, who says players that continually milk free kicks face "embarrassment" from the general public.

The MRP assessed Rance for staging against the Swans – but took no action – after he and Sydney forward Lance Franklin were involved in a shoving match near the boundary line that resulted in a free kick to the star Tiger.

The MRP said Franklin hit Rance in the "upper chest", citing "any exaggeration of the contact that was made to Rance was not excessive".

Scott called for a more stringent approach to staging, but acknowledged players engaged in it because of the potential for a free kick to be paid.

"We should be a lot harder on that stuff. We're getting guys suspended when players clearly stage. I don't like it," Scott told Fox Footy on Monday night.



"(But) the way things work at the moment, it's worth trying – the reward is too great to stamp it out.

"I don't think anyone likes it. I think if you do it over a period of time, the players that have had this accusation levelled at them over the last say five or six years would say, 'Don't get into habit of doing it because it'll be really hard to break (and) once it's hard to break, you develop a reputation for it'."

Richardson said staging was not a good look for the game, adding serial pests would be subjected to public shame.

"I really don't like it," Richardson said.

"I think generally the industry looks after it. There's a fair bit of embarrassment that gets bestowed upon the player.

"Now Rance is not someone that does this often, if at all, but if he kept doing it, he's going to cop it from the media (and) he's going to cop it from the crowd eventually – that can have a real impact."