LINDSAY Thomas says he is working hard to completely eradicate staging for free kicks out of his game after coach Brad Scott said it was damaging the forward’s reputation.

Thomas was guilty of diving for a free kick against Geelong earlier this month, which drew the wrath of Scott in the post-match press conference.

The coach said that while Thomas was comparable to other talented small forwards in the competition, he was being let down by the perception he was a perennial stager.

Thomas, on the eve of his 150th-game milestone, said he had taken Scott's comments on board and was intent on removing that aspect from his game.

"It's something I don't really want to be remembered as when I retire," Thomas said on Friday.

"I spoke to Brad and the players and it's something I have to cut out of my game.

"I'm working extremely hard to do that. I had a conversation with Brad and moved on pretty quickly from it.

"Everyone's going to have their opinions and Brad's is the one that matters to me the most.

"He rang me up and we had a brief chat and he told me what I had to work on and I'm just going to work hard to get it out of my game."

While it's not the first time Thomas has been targeted for this kind of on-field behaviour, he believes he has made in-roads in reducing how often he does it.

"I'm working hard at it and I've improved from two or three years ago," he said.

"I think I've cut it out of my game but not completely and I want to cut it out of my game completely.

"I'm not the only player in the AFL that does it - everyone does it - but I suppose I crossed the line a bit and Brad didn't like it so he voiced his opinion. I took it on board and we'll go from there."

Thomas said he was proud to make it to 150 games after overcoming hurdles throughout his career. 
 
He said the biggest challenge he faced was when his kicking for goal in the 2011 season was thwarted by a bad case of the yips, which contributed to him slotting 21 goals and 36 behinds.
 
He named Brent Harvey and Daniel Wells as role models who helped him through that period and to the milestone he will celebrate on Saturday against Adelaide in Hobart.
 
"I've had my challenges over the years. My family is pretty proud and I'm pretty proud of what I've overcome to get here," he said.
 
"I've worked extremely hard [since 2011]. It was probably the toughest [year] of my career at the time. 
 
"It was well documented I had the yips and that was pretty tough to cop and I copped that every week, and I was coming to training knowing I had to work so hard kicking goals on the track and still not being able to kick goals in important games.
 
"It was more so me than anything else. Mentally I wasn't in the right place at the time and I went away that year and worked on a lot of stuff.
 
"That was pretty tough and I've had to work really hard.
 
"Hopefully I can play another 100 or whatever it is."
 
Thomas said he was ready to face the Crows despite hurting his knee in the Roos' win over the Western Bulldogs on Sunday.
 
The suspended Harvey trained longer than his teammates on Friday and will travel with the team to Hobart later in the day.
 
Thomas said it was a "big blow" for the 382-game player to miss the next three games but the players' respect for the former captain hadn't dimmed.