THE PRACTICE of teams physically and constantly targeting an opposition player does not need to be stamped out, Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says.

Beveridge watched from close quarters as one of his premiership stars, Jason Johannisen, was physically harassed in each of the six weeks since Sydney instigated the tactic in round 12.

The comments also come after Brisbane Lions tagger Nick Robertson sailed close to the wind with his efforts to put off Brownlow Medal fancy Dustin Martin. 

"It's been part of our game for a long time. I don't like the ones where players can't see you, obviously," Beveridge told reporters.

"But the other stuff is part of the game. Do we need to stamp it right out? I don't think so. I think the umpires are probably trying to pay a little more attention to it, but I don't want to be outspoken on that – I think it's just part of it.

"I think it's always going to be the way (and) we've just got to deal with it and move on. But if any player is impeded, if they're grabbed, if they're a fair way off the ball and their momentum is halted in any sort of way that's illegal, then by all means pay a free kick.

"I'm not so sure about anything else besides the free kick, though."

Beveridge even believes Johannisen has emerged from the "difficult" period as a better footballer. His 23 disposals against Carlton on Sunday were his most since before the clash with the Swans.

"He's learned what we want from him from a team perspective as well," Beveridge said.

"There's an offensive side to JJ's game, but the week before, Adelaide beat us quite comprehensively in the end, but I thought [Jason] did quite well in going to Eddie Betts and Charlie Cameron at times.

"Matty Suckling was probably our best player, purely because JJ was prepared to sacrifice his game, because of the attention from Riley Knight making two versus ones."