It’s always worth reflecting on how arbitrary the AFL’s rules and norms are around player contact off the ball. Take for example where a player is outpointed in a marking contest or misses a set shot at goal. Opposition players, almost every time, run over and shoulder charge that player in what is effectively a dead-ball situation. It’s just weird that is allowed to happen (I can’t think of another sport where that sort of thing is condoned).
And yet in a put of push and shove off the ball, a quick tummy tap can be a suspension (or not), and after some off-ball push and shove a bloke lashes out and catches the bloke lightly in the chin – instead of the upper shoulder – and gets two weeks.
If the AFL really wants to get rid of the off the ball stuff, they should think about getting rid of all the off the ball stuff, not just the very narrowly-defined set of acts they have arbitrarily decided are outside the rules.
Personally though, I might be inclined to go the other way, starting with a rule that if someone rubs you on the head for making a mistake, you are allowed to punch them in the head with no consequence. That rubbing on the head thing is such a jerk move.
