North veteran Drew Petrie says the AFL may need to fine players ‘staging’ for free kicks to curb a growing trend.

The Blues’ Blaine Boekhorst has come under fire for an incident in which he was accused of throwing his head back to draw high contact over the weekend.

But Petrie said the individual criticism was unwarranted.

“Some of the best, elite midfielders of the competition are doing it. Every week we see it but we just pull out a few examples of guys who are easier to have a go at, maybe,” he said on Fox Sports’ AFL Tonight.

“I could name a few stars of the competition that do it, but I won’t because I still play against them.”

Petrie defended teammate Lindsay Thomas, who has come under fire in recent years for drawing free kicks, labelling the criticism “unfair”.

But he was quick to recognise an on emerging issue in the game that must be stamped out .

“I don’t like it, I don’t like players staging,” Petrie said.

“We might have to sting one player with a fine to warn the rest of the completion against doing it.”