Kidd said accusations by Pickers coach Matt Lantry that the Scorpions had a deliberate plan to niggle Maitland were unfounded and that Maitland players had given as well as they got in physical clashes and had been just of guilty of pushing and shoving their opponents.

In a rare criticism of an opponent's tactics, Lantry said Macquarie appeared to have come to the ground with a tactic to slow down play and niggle his side.

In other news:

"They niggle to the point where there is foul play, lots of push and shove, lots of stop-start so there is no flow in the game," Lantry said.

"I thought the referee did an OK job looking after the foul play, but the half went for about 50-odd minutes there were that many stoppages, that many penalties, that many all-in push and shoves and not enough action taken at times.

"I think it is a real blight on the local level of footy."

Kidd said he believed both sides were as bad as each other in the first half.

"It's always a pretty tight game with us and there's always a bit of feeling. Yesterday (Sunday) they were playing for first spot to essentially lock it in and we're still fighting for a top three spot so there was always going to be a bit of feeling in the game," he said.

"I don't think there was anything over the top, that's probably where we differ, I don't think there was anything out of the norm.

"I think the ref handled everything extremely well. He picked up all the foul play and I think both sides were guilty of it.

"I think to say we came with a tactic to niggle, I draw the line at that as we are a fairly small outfit and we don't get a lot of joy out of trying to be intimidators.

"In the end they were too good for us, but I think they were annoyed that the small boys from down Macquarie had pushed them in the first half.

"The penalty count was nine to seven in the first half so it wasn't all one-way traffic. I think the Pickers like to get a free flowing style of game and don't like it when they don't get it.

"The slowing down of the ruck and things like that, that's what you aim to do. You aim to get numbers in a tackle and make it a slow ruck.

"We might do it better than a lot of other teams and that's a frustration, but to be critical of our tactics is shot at me and a shot at our players that we don't deserve.

"We don't go out their to play dirty, we go out there to play physical obviously but at the end of the day there were as many Maitland players on report and as many penalties for foul play against Maitland as there was Macquarie and it's disappointing Matt's gone down that line to be honest."

Lantry said he had expected Kidd to defend his team and the way they played, but the bottom line was there had been too many penalties and delays in both games the teams had played this season.

"In the first game (won by Macquarie 20-21) there were 20 penalties, this time there were 26 - 16 against them and 10 against us," Lantry said.

"I didn't say we weren't guilty of fouls and penalties or running in to defend our teammates with pushing and shoving.

"But that's twice now the game has been played like this. We adjusted and we won't be caught again.

"But the referees need to step in earlier and start sinbinning players to stamp it out."