CARLTON midfielder Bryce Gibbs has joined a chorus of confusion after Port Adelaide's Jay Schulz escaped suspension for his tackle that knocked out Sydney Swans defender Ted Richards concussed.

Gibbs will return this weekend after receiving a two-game suspension in round 12 for a tackle that left Port Adelaide star Robbie Gray concussed. 

Both Gibbs and Schulz appeared to turn their opponents in the tackle before bringing them to ground, but the Match Review Panel deemed that only Schulz had performed one continuous motion, and that the tackle was not unreasonable in the circumstances.

Click here to read the full MRP statement

Minutes after Schulz was cleared, Gibbs tweeted: "I'm confused".

His tweet was quickly followed by his Carlton teammate Kade Simpson: "Surely having a lend..."

AFL Legends Kevin Bartlett and Leigh Matthews also expressed their disapproval of the decision.

Gibbs was rightly penalised, Matthews said, but the decision to clear Schulz of what he said was a "very similar 'arms-pinned-and-head-burying' knock-out tackle" left him stumped.

Bartlett said the decision to give "the green light" to the Port Adelaide forward's tackle was an "#mrpjoke"

Carlton CEO Steven Trigg last week expressed bemusement over Gibbs' penalty in the wake of Sydney Swan Lance Franklin receiving a one-game suspension for running past the ball and laying a heavy bump on Richmond's Shane Edwards.

"Without regurgitating, revisiting, re-prosecuting the whole thing, it is odd that a strong tackle gets more than the other charge, there's no doubt about that," Trigg said.

"I think the majority of football people would question that, I think that would be fair (to say).

"What we also understand though is that the outcome is the determinant and footballers today have to live with that and we have to live with that because it's the way the AFL have set it up.

"But it doesn't stop you from going, 'Yeah, it doesn't seem to quite line up'."

Trigg said he understood the AFL's position on players' duty of care to their opponents.

"But it does create in this 360-degree game of ours some complexity about lining up penalties for those sorts of things."