IT'S TAKEN 18 months, but cracks have finally emerged in the AFL's new Match Review Panel system and players are exploiting them. Enough is enough.  
 
The biggest problem is not the one-match ban offered to Geelong forward Tom Hawkins, however, despite the public outcry at what has been described as an "injustice".
 
The MRP's most pressing problem is the rise in aggressive punches to the guts and the inability to punish them with anything more than a fine. It's become a blight on the game and it has to change at the end of the season.

Scott 'shocked' by MRP decision on Hawkins

The issue has been put under the spotlight in the most controversial week of match review findings since football operations manager Mark Evans successfully revamped the system ahead of the 2015 season. 

Hawkins' cuff to the chin of Phil Davis has been debated next to Gold Coast star Tom Lynch's full-blooded punch to the stomach of opponent Jeremy Laidler, and the penalties don't add up.

If Geelong had the will to challenge the Hawkins ban it could have. It was burdened, however, by the significant risk of a second match on the sidelines for its leading goalkicker.

But there is no means to correct a poor outcome on Lynch, whose punch was described by his coach as "totally undisciplined from a leader".

"It's not acceptable, it's not acceptable, especially as a leader," Rodney Eade said on Saturday night.

"With two minutes to go, nothing in the game, you can't get frustrated like that."

Financial sanctions are not changing player behaviour, and it should be said the panel made up of former players Chris Knights, Jason Johnson, Michael Christian and Nathan Burke had no choice but to fine Lynch.

As such, it is time for the MRP to make all intentional strikes punishable with suspension, or remove one of the two chances players are given.  

This was Lynch's second offence this season and he will be suspended for one match if he commits the same offence again in the final 12 rounds.

Knowing that, the gun forward won't err again. He knows he'll risk suspension, just as he knew in the final two minutes of Saturday night's clash against the Sydney Swans that he could belt Laidler with no threat of a week on the sidelines. 

So how can the MRP be fixed without going too far and again putting players on the sidelines for minor offences?

The AFL has two options. Firstly, it can make all intentional strikes punishable with at least a one-match suspension.

Right now, intentional strikes to the body with low impact receive a $1000 fine for a first offence and a $1500 fine for a second offence.

Players seem happy to dish out stomach punches, even right in front of umpires. Picture: AFL Media

The third time a player 'strikes' they are suspended for one match.

The AFL has collected $37,000 in fines for low-level offences this season, with 13 players committing intentional, low impact strikes to the body.

The League could remove the two chances players get and still have the 'out' of clearing a player if there was insufficient force in the strike to constitute a report.

The second and less drastic option is scaling back the two chances players are given to one.

There are repeat offenders already under the new system, but right now they get two free 'whacks' and no one has yet committed a third.

If a player misses a final for committing his second 'tummy tap' in a season, he'll only have himself to blame.

Better yet, make all intentional strikes punishable with suspension and watch the trend disappear completely from the game.