Lindsay Thomas deserves a fair go: North Melbourne coach Scott NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott said yesterday he was tiring of having to defend the slurs and criticism directed towards his small forward Lindsay Thomas. Thomas found himself in the spotlight last Sunday for a behind-the-play bump that left Magpies defender Ben Reid bloodied and provoked Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley to slam the Kangaroo for what he deemed a "pretty ordinary" act. Scott later attacked Buckley for casting unwanted aspersions on his player and was later vindicated when the Match Review Panel cleared the 25-year-old of any wrongdoing. That prompted Buckley to ring both Scott and Thomas to apologise for his criticism, an act that was praised by the Kangaroos' coach. But while Scott lauded the character of Buckley for making the call, he also said it was time Thomas received a fair go from the AFL public. People are all too quick to criticise Lindsay Thomas. Last year Luke Schuey was suspended for two weeks and his QC's defence was that Lindsay Thomas was a stager," Scott said. That is just not on. It is not acceptable for people to say that. Lindsay in the past has played for free kicks and we have instructed him not to do that. He was heavily criticised for his goal-kicking and his conversion (in 2011 when he kicked 21.36) yet last year he was one of the most accurate goal-kicking small forwards in the competition, and that does not get reported. All people wanted to talk about was Lindsay Thomas' yips behind goal. I think it is a great story for the rest of our players that he has had some pretty horrific things happen to him in his life and he has persisted through with great strength of character and I won't let anyone denigrate that unfairly. He fronted up to his problems and he worked his way through it. I think anyone, in any walk of life who can do that, should be admired. Aside from the defence of his small forward, who has kicked 155 goals in 111 games, Scott's focus this week has been on how to rectify the Kangaroos' wayward use of the ball and inability to choose the correct option often enough during the loss to Collingwood. Still bemused at Hawthorn's failure to finish off Geelong last Monday, Alastair Clarkson lamented his Hawks had been killed on the rebound by the Cats, a factor Scott is also mindful of in Sunday's clash with Geelong. "I don't think we, as a club, gave enough credit to Collingwood's pressure ... but we were very, very disappointed with the way we used the ball," Scott said. Out of their 103 points, they scored 89 of them from turnovers, so it is the double whammy - you don't score yourself and we got punished on the way back, so that is a part of the game we think we can clean up very, very quickly but the same is going to be true this week. If we don't use the ball very well and defend well against Geelong, they will punish us on the rebound as well. Our players haven't lost the ability to use the footy or kick the ball, it is just more the options we took more so than the execution alone. We think if we start to take some better options, the execution will pick up as well. In a rarity at AFL level, both North Melbourne and Geelong worked together in simulated match practice situations in the pre-season. The arrangement flows from the fact the two sides are coached by twin brothers.