Richmond forward Tom Lynch is in hot water following a kneeing incident on Dougal Howard during his side's semi-final win over St Kilda on Friday night.
The incident follows a number of episodes from Lynch's season that have seen the star forward face fines from the match review officer.
The incident is seen as intentional with high contact, although suggests low impact was made.
Many AFL experts have debated whether Lynch should be suspended, which would see the 27-year-old would miss the Tigers' preliminary final clash against Port Adelaide next week if he is handed a ban.
โAnnoying and silly but not enough to warrant suspension,โ AFL great Wayne Carey said.
Fellowย Channel 7 analyst Daisy Pearce said it will be unlikely that Lynch is hit with a ban, despite the "bad look".
โIt was just unnecessary. There wasnโt a lot in the initial 50-metre penalty,โ Pearce explained.
โI think Howard kind of dragged him down on top of him. The knee is a bad look. I donโt think thereโs enough force weโll see him rubbed out of a preliminary final but it is a terrible look.โ
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said the incident was a "minuscule" part of the game.
"The fact of the matter it's a big boys' game. Things happen and players will always play hard and tough and there is a reason we are into our third or fourth prelim in a row," Hardwick said.
"We play a hard, tough brand of footy and there is no way I would discourage it from my players because if you take that away from them they're not the competitive beasts we know they are."
Hardwick added that he backs his players to play an aggressive style of football.
"They will push the envelope โ there is no doubt about that โ but our boys play the game pretty tough," Hardwick said.
"I don't want him giving away free kicks, don't get me wrong, and I want him playing within the rules, but Tom is an aggressive type of player.
"The way he jumps at packs is incredible, but I think what happens is we tend to focus on the 20 per cent, not the 80 per cent, [on] the incident that is minuscule."
