BRENDAN Fevola punched Adam Selwood in the stomach on Saturday night. It was not a huge punch but it sent Selwood to the ground.

Nathan Lovett-Murray punched Daniel Motlop in the stomach on Sunday. Again, not a huge amount in it, but Motlop went to the ground.

Both were stupid and unnecessary. Both looked like punches. Neither caused damage but Fevola's was arguably the worse of the two for it removed Selwood from the passage of play.

Lovett-Murray will not play next week for Essendon if he accepts the charge against him and is not cleared at the tribunal. Fevola will play for Carlton. But first, he will play for Victoria this week.

Making certain Fevola would be available for the Hall of Fame game, however, was of no consequence to the AFL match review panel, for suspensions are waived for this exhibition game.

This is one the greater absurdities of football, that a player's behaviour be deemed so offensive that he must miss a match for his club but not for a team in a game the league wishes to promote heavily.

How could it be that Daniel Kerr is available to play in this match after his headbutt?

Had Barry Hall not rammed his hand through a fence as well as Brent Staker's head, would he, too, have been considered for Victoria?

It appears untenable on the video evidence to conclude that Fevola had done anything other than what Lovett-Murray had done. Panel chairman Andrew McKay's argument was this: "The Carlton player raised his arm from the side in an attempt to hold Selwood up." Well, he certainly achieved that.

He went on: "The match review panel then considered the action as rough conduct. It was determined the action was not unreasonable in the circumstances due to the lack of excessive force used, which was backed by the club medical report on Selwood, who sustained no injury from the contact." Neither did Daniel Motlop.

Motlop, like Selwood, was winded but was also back in the play soon afterwards.

Whether Fevola deserved to be suspended for a fairly mild hit is beside the point. It was a punch just as Lovett-Murray's was a punch. Call it what it was and treat it the same way.