As match review officer Michael Christian washes his hands on the punching debate, the umpires need to take responsibility

AFL match review officer Michael Christian has lost the battle against low-grade punching. It is up to the umpires to take action to solve the problem by whistling for free kicks.

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AFL match review officer Michael Christian has washed his hands. And who can blame him amid the confusing messages across the league about punches.

In January, Christian put the AFL players on notice. Fines for “low-impact” punches were lifted to $3000 in the hope this would deter players from their stomach and jumper jabs.

“The first thing to say,” Christian said as he was handed his charter as the lone judge in reviewing on-field incidents, “is the AFL want punching out of the game.”

The players, who have their average salary approaching $400,000 a season, have kept swinging. Some — such as Crows captain Taylor Walker — have even successfully appealed to the tribunal when fined for showing some “bravado” to an opponent.

Team-mate Eddie Betts and Port Adelaide vice-captain Ollie Wines last week declared the jabs — all part of being physical to an opponent — as part of the game, even though it is clearly outlawed in the sport’s rules.

“That’s part of footy,” Betts said on radio FIVEaa where Wines later gave the same view on punching.

“It puts them off their game,” added Betts of the purpose of the low-grade punches. “As long as you don’t hit them in the head …”

New AFL football boss Steve Hocking declared this punching contradicted sportsmanship.

And now Christian has thrown up his hands in despair.

“To suspend every player that strikes or punches with negligible impact,” Christian said this week, “we’ve got to be a little careful what we wish for, because there will be carnage in terms of the number of suspensions.”

This is a dramatic shift from his position in January when he said: “For a whole range of reasons we want to get rid of punching from the game.”

Christian has thrown the challenge to his masters at AFL House saying: “If the game, the AFL executive, want to go that extra step at the end of the year, then that’s up to them and that’s nothing to do with me.”

Elsewhere, in the Adelaide Footy League (once known as the amateur competition) chief executive John Kernahan has acted. In a memo across the league, Kernahan this week wrote:

Eddie Betts and factions within the other AFL might think punching is part of the game, but we do not. It is unacceptable at any level.”

The Adelaide Footy League (the other AFL) has put its players on notice it will double penalties at its tribunal for the rest of the season. This is a strong statement.

But there is one point that needs to be underlined in the growing concern for how low-grade punches are becoming part of the arsenal for unsettling an opponent: Where are the umpires in using the rule book on the field to deal with this issue?

If field umpires were to punish players for punches with free kicks and 50-metre penalties, there would be a quick reaction from coaches to restore discipline on the field. And there would be less cases for Christian to review each weekend.

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