Essendon senior coach Ben Rutten has hit out at the tactics Fremantle used to counter star midfielder Zach Merrett during Sunday's narrow victory over the Dockers.

Merrett received a hard tag from Dockers youngster Caleb Serong and the move paid dividends as the usually prolific midfielder was held to just 22 disposals in the Bombers’ seven-point win at Marvel Stadium.

But it was the close checking of Serong and his Dockers teammates that drew the ire of Rutten, with the rookie coach believing the tactics used were over the top.

"I don't think it’s a great look for our game, the off-ball stuff," Rutten said after the win.

"I think we need to let our good players play the game and compete hard when the ball is around, as it is dangerous."

Dockers coach Justin Longmuir didn't want to get into a war of words with Rutten on the issue, but still couldn't resist a small dig at his coaching counterpart.

"I don't want to make a headline, but I think their players looked after Merrett behind the ball pretty well," Longmuir said.

The second-year coach didn't see anything untoward with the tactics the Dockers used and even commended Serong for his tagging performance.

"Merrett still had a lot of the ball, but I didn’t see his usual creative ball use that he can have at his best, so I thought he (Serong) did a pretty good job," Longmuir added.

"It was tactical (to tag Merrett) as he is clearly one of the better mids in the comp. 

"He can slice teams, so we wanted to shut him out of the game."