GEELONG coach Chris Scott has added his voice to the barrage of criticism about the way contact in marking contests is being adjudicated.

The AFL says that pushing, blocking, bumping and holding in marking contests have been outlawed for many years.

But Scott is adamant that the rule is being interpreted differently this season than it has been in the past.

"It all comes down to interpretation," Scott said at Simonds Stadium on Tuesday morning.

"My personal view is that if we've been saying you can't bump, block, push or hold in a marking contest, then two of the greatest footballers of all time in Tony Lockett and Jason Dunstall would've been ineffective.

"It's not a great development in our game."

The AFL has apologised to Adelaide for the free kick paid against Scott Thompson for making contact with Hawthorn's David Hale before taking a mark during the Crows' narrow loss to the Hawks on Saturday.

Scott says the apology has only served to further muddy the waters.

"I think you only need to listen the explanations (from the AFL) to understand how difficult it is for umpires," he said.

"I think the explanations are extremely confusing. To say that you can't block, bump, push or hold in a marking contest makes it very difficult to understand how you can make any contact at all."

Scott does not believe the rule needs to be rewritten. Instead, his preference is "for the laws of the game committee to be more direct with the umpires.

"I can understand that players are confused and I feel even more sorry for the umpires because I think it's extremely difficult to adjudicate."

Despite his view that the rule is now being interpreted differently, Scott is not about to ask his key position players to change the way they go about their business.

"You've got to be really careful about the really obvious push, where you sort of push them over," he said.

"But the reality is that when two players are competing in a contest they're both pushing against each other, so if one's stronger than the other the push is going to become more obvious.

"Besides the really obvious early push, we're just saying to our players, 'Keep doing what you've always done.'

"We accept that occasionally there'll be some free kicks paid against them that we wouldn't have expected."

Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol