Greene fined for elbow

TOBY Greene has added to an astonishing $25,000 in match review fines but been spared suspension and is available to take on Carlton on Thursday.

The colourful Greene has been handed a $500 fine by the AFL for his elbow to the stomach of Fremantle’s Reece Conca instead of a mediumimpact suspension.

Greene is one of the most regular visitors to the AFL’s judiciary, charged 19 times and handed $25,000 in fines over his career.

But Greene was helped by Conca remaining on the field and not requiring medical care, with players rarely suspended for punches to the stomach.

Only Zach Merrett’s punch that broke Jack Silvagni’s rib was handed a ban this year given it elevated the force, with Tom Lynch given a fine for his stomach punch on Gold Coast’s Sam Collins.

Ex-AFL stars continue to suggest the league needs to crack down on punching but the league would have to elevate low impact-intentional punches to the body to oneweek suspension to eliminate all hits of that force.

GWS teammate Matt de Boer was handed a $500 misconduct fine for pushing star Fremantle midfielder Nathan Fyfe over the fence in the Giants’ critical win at Optus Stadium.

De Boer had already pushed him when the pair were next to the boundary line, and then shoved him again in an incident that saw Fyfe spilling over the fence.

It was not forceful but the league continues to reinforce to players they should not push rivals into fences given the capacity to cause injury.

Melbourne’s Charlie Spargo was handed a rough conduct fine for his dangerous tackle on St Kilda’s Nick Coffield in the win over the Saints.