Jimmy Bartel remains one of the Cats' most important on-field leaders, according to senior coach Chris Scott.

The 2007 Brownlow medallist has been in brilliant form in recent weeks, tallying 30 disposals against Gold Coast in round six and 28 against West Coast last weekend.

His ability to roam all over the ground led to a question about this being featured on the round eight episode of Tweet The Coach, brought to you by Momentum Energy.

Scott was asked whether Bartel these days has a "licence to roam".

The coach replied: "We like to back our players' instinct, but it's always within a framework.

"Jim's really clear on the role we would like him to play.

"But when the game dictates we back him to use his judgement, with the caveat that if we don't like what we see in the box we can always change it."