Bloody brawl mars AFL Hall of Fame tribute match

AN ugly brawl that left one man injured and two arrested at the MCG on Saturday night threatened to spill over the edge of an upper deck.

AN ugly brawl that left one man injured and two arrested at the MCG on Saturday night threatened to spill over the edge of an upper deck.

One man was left with a bloodied face and others torn away from the fight by patrons as haymakers were thrown during the AFL's Hall of Fame tribute match.

It took MCG security and police at least five minutes to arrive at the scene of the brawl to stop it.

Despite the crowd violence the match was a huge success, with a crowd of almost 70,000 turning up to watch the Big V skip away late to a 17-point victory over the Dream Team.

But AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou later said reintroducing State of Origin as a permanent fixture was "not on our radar".

The fight broke out in the third quarter in the front row of level two behind the city end goals.

Thousands of fans cheered and jeered more wildly than they did for the match.

Police arrested two men and four were ejected from the ground.

Jamie Gallagher, of Collingwood, said it was lucky no one fell from the balcony.

"It looked like one bloke was going to be turfed over the balcony at one point," Mr Gallagher said.

"It took the police at least eight minutes to turn up.

"The one lone security guy, who was there after five minutes, ended up on the floor from what I saw."

The MCG's Shane Brown said security might have had difficulty finding the fracas.

"It can take a couple of minutes to get to the appropriate guards, they then have to get them to the right spot," Mr Brown said.

"Fights have not been increasingly prevalent. I can only think of a few incidents in recent times but the reality is we will get incidents."

"There's still not many, but we'd prefer none."

A Mexican wave, banned by the Melbourne Cricket Club in the cricket season, involved most of the crowd in the final term.

The risks involved in a fixture like the tribute match, featuring most of the league's best players, were shown when West Coast midfielder Daniel Kerr (Dream Team) and Collingwood ruckman Josh Fraser (Victoria) left the field with injuries.

Kerr went to hospital for tests, but his lower-leg injury was not as bad as first feared.

Fraser is keen to play against St Kilda on Friday night, after fears he might be out for two months with posterior cruciate ligament damage in his right knee.

He later called some of those involved in the Mexican wave "idiots" for throwing rubbish.

"It was great but it goes too far sometimes," Fraser said.

"There was stuff landing on top of the dugout.

"People just have to use their brains a bit . . . when you get a group of people together, there are always a small group of idiots."

- with AAP