PEOPLE should embrace the game's imperfections rather than obsessing about creating the perfect game, Geelong triple premiership player Jimmy Bartel says.

Amid a growing chorus of voices calling for radical changes to be made to the rules to minimise stoppages and limit congestion around the ball, Bartel preached caution.

He suggested it bordered on arrogance for anyone to think they had an answer on how to make the game perfect.

"[I] think people are a bit full of themselves if they think they can create the rule that changes the whole game," Bartel told AFL.com.au.

"There is this obsession with the perfect game, and the great thing about our game is that it is not perfect - and I think people just need to accept that."

Bartel said despite the increase in stoppages the game was entitled to work its way through a difficult phase without the game being fundamentally changed.

Never a fan of knee-jerk reactions, Bartel said another couple of years were needed to work out whether the problem was entrenched.

"There are a lot more stoppages or teams are playing close to the boundary but, you watch, if a team starts taking it up the middle then other teams will copy," Bartel said.

He has played 275 games since making his debut in 2002.

Regarded as one of the era's best midfielders, Bartel won the 2007 Brownlow Medal and the 2011 Norm Smith Medal.

He had 41 disposals on Saturday night in his first senior game since round three to be the Cats' best player in a losing side.

"I'm not as negative as everybody else on the state of the game," Bartel said.

"One team will think of something really good or a style of play and then every other team will adjust to play against that."