Geelong’s James Kelly and North Melbourne’s Drew Petrie and Majak Daw have avoided fines after being asked by the AFL to explain their comments on Twitter.
The three players had commented on the AFL tribunal’s decision on Tuesday night to suspend North midfielder Jack Ziebell for a heavy bump on Carlton’s Aaron Joseph.
The tribunal had found Ziebell was going for the ball, but still imposed the heavy sanction, prompting a furious response from coach Brad Scott.
AFL football operations general manager Adrian Anderson said the league had received written replies from the Kangaroos and the Cats after the two clubs had been sent please-explain letters.
The league has determined in each case, the comments were not a breach of AFL Rule 23.18.2 – covering public comment and criticism of a tribunal decision – in that they were not unfair, unreasonable or excessive.
Anderson has asked each club to ensure players and officials are fully aware of their obligations under the Player Rules.
Petrie had tweeted: “advice for @jackziebell. Stop being so courageous and playing footy hard that way it’s meant to be played. Please turn into a softy!”
Triple-premiership player Kelly had said: “I was going to tweet how Ziebell getting four weeks was a mare of a decision but decided not to so I don’t get in trouble.”