Former Roos skipper warned by AFL; Mitchell says ‘lesson learnt’ for star duo

North Melbourne midfielder Jy Simpkin has been given an official warning by the AFL and forced to remove inflammatory social media posts after taking aim at the league.

A league source with knowledge of the incident confirmed to this masthead that the AFL and North Melbourne dealt with the matter on Wednesday.

Simpkin had vented his displeasure on X (formerly Twitter) over what he felt was inconsistent officiating after teammate Paul Curtis had his three-game suspension for a rough tackle on West Coast Eagle Hamish Davis upheld by the AFL tribunal.

Simpkin posted footage of Curtis’ tackle on social media alongside a similar incident involving Mabior Chol in which the Hawthorn forward knocked out Geelong defender Tom Stewart but escaped sanction.

However, Simpkin – the Roos’ former skipper – used his post to highlight the different sanctions given by the AFL.

Curtis had a three-game ban upheld by a tribunal on Tuesday.

“The AFL needs to get it together, the constant rule changes and the MRO is laughable,” Simpkin said. “Players don’t know what they can and can’t do any more. Just hope for the best each week.”

Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson, KC, was satisfied Curtis’ tackle was dangerous.

“Curtis came in from the side, wrapped his arms around Davis’s arms and dropped and rotated Davis into the ground,” Gleeson said. “Curtis made no apparent attempt to keep his feet, to release either of Davis’s arms or to rotate Davis onto himself.

“It was submitted on behalf of Curtis that it was the momentum of the tackle that caused the players to go to ground. We disagree.” Curtis will miss games against Richmond, Essendon and Port Adelaide.

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says James Sicily and Nick Watson have learnt from their actions in the team’s stinging pre-bye loss and are now focused on the game he’s billing as a must-win match against the struggling Gold Coast Suns on Friday night.

The Hawks and Suns clash at People First Stadium at a time when each has not resembled the premiership threat the football world thought they would be.

The ninth-placed Suns have lost their past three games, leaving coach Damien Hardwick to fend off questions on Wednesday about disharmony among players and the coaches, while the Hawks have three defeats and a draw from their past six games, including a mystifying fade-out before their mid-season bye to the Western Bulldogs.

It was in that game where a distracted Sicily traded barbs in a fiery match-up on Bulldog Will Lewis, while Watson verbally challenged opponent Michael Sellwood to “walk the walk” in an interview on Fox