Geelong coach Chris Scott has called out the AFL’s “shocking contradiction” after threatening to blacklist the league’s media arm.

The premiership winner was forced to address star recruit Bailey Smith’s fitness last week in response to the AFL website publishing audio of a conversation between the pair.

Scott said he had understood audio was not being recorded and described it as a “blatant intrustion”.

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“If they keep doing that stuff, we won’t let them in,” he said in a pre-match press conference.

“Because it was so misleading, the way that was reported. It was just not true.”

The issue did not go further but Scott has now expanded on his issue with the situation, calling out the blurred lines of the AFL and its media arm.

Speaking on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters, he said he remains “annoyed by it — and I’m going to contradict myself — for about five seconds”.

“If I’m going to be recorded you should let us know — and that’s not the deal. They’re coming in there to get vision,” Scott said.

“If they’re secretly recording us, no worries, it’s open slater, we’re just not going to let you in.”

The dual premiership coach said in fact his frustrations lie with “the broader issue” of what the AFL asks of football departments.

Scott has been a vocal critic of the soft cap, which was cut during COVID but will be increased next year in part influenced by the Cats coach’s situation.

“The AFL, it’s a comedy in the context of soft cap cuts and all the changes post-COVID,” he said.

“But the AFL keep layering stuff on top of the clubs in relation to the broadcast.

“I don’t (think it’s unfair) — I think it should be promoted but not at the expense of footy departments.

“At the same time they’re saying we’re going to increase obligations on you, while we’re cutting the soft cap. That’s a shocking contradiction.

“So when AFL Media — and they pretend there’s this Chinese wall (from the AFL itself), I would question that — but when they do stuff like that, that compromises the relationship between the club.

“And I’d say our club has a great relationship with the media. We don’t always get on but that’s what makes it a good relationship, we can have back-and-forth.”

Scott immediately reflected that he was “inflaming” the matter because he had only “thought about it for five seconds”.

Clearly, though, it still rankled that Cats supporters were left to believe Smith had another hamstring problem.

“I wouldn’t normally clarify this but he was actually saying ‘it’s not my hammy, I’ve got a bit of a tight adductor, I’m going to do some run-throughs,” Scott said.

“So then the media would say why don’t you be more transparent with us and we go around in circles.

“I’m not doing a very good job of showing that I’m not annoyed (laughs).”