The AFL says there will be no head office-directed crackdown on players staging in the wake of criticism levelled at Melbourne midfielder Clayton Oliver. 

The message comes as Oliver said he didn't see the contact from West Coast's Will Scholfield coming during the Demons' thrilling round 14 win against the Eagles at Domain Stadium on Saturday night. At half time Oliver was felled by a glancing elbow to the chin by Eagles defender Will Schofield. 

Despite Schofield being reported for striking, some match commentators and fans believed Oliver went to ground too easily.

Speaking to Channel Seven after the match Oliver said the contact took him by surprise. 

"It probably doesn't look that bad but I guess I just wasn't ready for it," the 19-year-old said when questioned about the incident. 

"I don't want to look, obviously, like a faker or anything like that so yeah, it sort of just rocked me and I wasn't ready for it.

"It just sort of shook my head a little bit … It was just a little bit sore, nothing too bad [at half time]."

Richmond's Alex Rance was criticised in round 13, after he went to ground following a shove to the chest from Sydney's Lance Franklin. 

A spokesman for the AFL said on Sunday that the league would leave any directive to players on staging to the Match Review Panel. 

The MRP can warn players for a first staging offence, followed by fines for all subsequent staging offences. 

Under an AFL rule introduced before the 2010 season, "staging can include excessive exaggeration of contact in an unsportsmanlike manner". 

In 2010 Port Adelaide's Kane Cornes was the first player investigated for staging, while later in the year Essendon's Leroy Jetta was the first player reprimanded for staging. 

Only two more players have been reprimanded for staging; Fremantle's Ryan Crowley and then-Carlton's Jarrad Waite in 2012. 

In the 2012 pre season, the AFL Commission encouraged a crackdown on staging, directing the MRP "to be more stringent on staging, with excessive exaggeration of contact in an unsportsmanlike manner to be a reportable offence in addition to feigning contact". 

In 2012 West Coast's Jack Darling was cleared of staging by the MRP while in 2014 Adam Goodes, Lindsay Thomas and Jimmy Bartel were also cleared of the offence.