Drew Petrie has described criticism around Brent Macaffer’s controversial tagging tactics as ‘a Friday night beat-up’.

Pointing to a history of stoppers being sent to key players, the North interim captain says he knows the feeling of trying to escape an opponent’s wrath.

“Taggers have been around forever and they’ll be around forever,” Petrie said on the AFL Exchange podcast.  

“Every week when I line up in the forward line I’ve got a bloke who doesn’t leave me alone for four quarters either.

“I was chatting to Scott Thompson and Nathan Grima about this issue, and they said the same thing. They follow their blokes around and try and hassle them and terrorise them for four quarters too.”

Macaffer has been the topic of much discussion this week after he kept Trent Cotchin to just 13 disposals on Friday night with a tight tag, but Petrie isn’t buying into the debate.

“I don’t think there’s an issue at all. I’ve got no problems with what Brent Macaffer did on Friday night whatsoever.”

Petrie joined coach Brad Scott in suggesting North won’t be taking aim at the Magpies’ midfielder on Saturday, despite the likelihood he’ll line up on Brent Harvey or Daniel Wells.

Meanwhile, a tendency for umpires to put away the whistle in marking contests has been welcomed by the players.

Having received just one free kick in the opening four rounds after averaging two per game last year, Petrie isn’t one to complain.

“I sat in front of senior umpiring coach Hayden Kennedy (on flight home) who was up there (Sydney) to observe his umpires in our game, and he asked our opinion on how we felt marking contests were going,” he added.

“The three of us (Petrie, Thompson and Grima) were unanimous; we were all very happy with the way umpires were seeing the contest and how umpires were allowing strong players to use a little bit more strength in marking contests.

“We all got shown the DVD prior to the season commencing and the umpires showed examples of where you could use a bit more physicality in the contest. At the moment I think it’s going very, very well and we are not seeing too many ticky touchwood free kicks being paid.”

Admitting there may be a swing too far the other way at times, Petrie again highlighted Travis Cloke as one player who could feel hard done by.

“Over the years we’ve seen umpires pay 50/50 decisions and over-umpire the game. Obviously there’s been plenty of media around Cloke and him being held and grappled and double-teamed and not getting free kicks, but I think the general consensus is that the players are very happy with how the game’s being umpired.

“The other side of the argument is that some are maybe being let go, but we need to keep some physicality in the game and in the contest we can allow a little bit.”

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