Melbourne president Jim Stynes says the AFL has caused players to lie to family and friends with their recruiting policies for the expansion clubs.

Stynes said the league should never have allowed Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney to be able to sign players from existing clubs a year in advance of their inaugural AFL seasons.

"The way these two teams have got to build has just caused a lot of deception in the game," Stynes told a pre-match function at the MCG on Sunday.

"To date, players were able to go about their business and if things weren't working out, then they were able to go to other clubs.

"But I just think the AFL should never have allowed teams to recruit a year before they actually played.

"What it's doing is it's causing players basically to lie - to lie to their families, their friends, their mates."

Stynes said the situation also caused undue pressure on players such as young Demons star Tom Scully, a GWS target, who has had to deny speculation he has already signed with the Giants for 2012.

"Tom's had to get out there and defend himself. He's only a 19-year-old, really he's just a young man, he's copping all this stuff," Stynes said.

"He's assured me he hasn't signed anything, no-one around him has signed anything.

"But he now has to put up with that for the rest of the year until he does.

"It's not the way we wanted to go and I think that particular rule needs to be reviewed into the future, so players and their teammates can play knowing there's honesty there."

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