FOOTBALL is the great move-on sport. Win, lose or draw on any given weekend, the next AFL match is all that matters.
It is that attitude which is now driving the desire of Carlton and St Kilda to simply make disappear the ugly events of Saturday afternoon at Etihad Stadium.
Go back to Saturday night though, in the hours after their game had finished, and players and officials from both organisations were aggrieved at the actions and words during the contest.
Carlton people were genuinely concerned for their captain Marc Murphy who was as distressed as they'd ever seen him in a 222-game career; St Kilda people were angrily annoyed at what Murphy said to the then-stricken Jake Carlisle.
Jarryn Geary and Marc Murphy in the thick of it during the melee. Picture: AFL Photos
By Sunday morning, no one was talking. It's all OK, we're just going to move on. We've got matches to prepare for next weekend.
But it's not OK. This move-on attitude which swamps football is at times pathetic.
No other professional workplace in the world would tolerate the rubbish which too regularly spews from the mouths of footballers.
When the AFL today uses its Match Review Panel to hand out thousands of dollars of fines for the melee which erupted, it should also order its football department to conduct a thorough inquiry.
There doesn't need to be a public witch hunt, but there needs to be a strong public message, delivered by the AFL and the club leaders, that what happened at Etihad Stadium on Saturday can never happen again in an AFL match.
Marc Murphy has regularly been personally sledged during games. Words from St Kilda players on Saturday were clearly distasteful and designed to humiliate.
Is that what we stand for in the AFL?
Murphy responded with a personal sledge on Carlisle.
St Kilda players were furious with Murphy. They were furious with the "look" of what he did - running to and then standing over the injured Carlisle - and the words.
Saints captain Jarryn Geary ran and attacked Murphy, starting the melee.
For too long, the what-happens-on-the-field-stays-on-the-field adage has allowed players to say and do things they wouldn't dare say and do in situations outside an AFL match.
How courageous is that?
Marc Murphy leaves the field. Picture: AFL Photos 
AFL players deserve massive credit for the manner in which they have created a better workplace when it comes to religious, racial and sexual vilification.
Zero tolerance applies there, and the weekend's St Kilda-Carlton game needs to be used as the starting point for zero tolerance on words designed to humiliate personally.
It will be a long road, but may as well start building it today.
The AFL inquiry doesn't need to name names. But it does need to result in a public statement that this must stop, as of round eight 2017.
Matt Finnis, former AFL Players Association boss and now CEO of St Kilda, also needs to address his entire playing group. So too Steve Trigg of Carlton.
Under Finnis' leadership, the AFLPA and the Saints have embraced and publicly promoted many social causes. He needs to be a leader on this topic.
Only then can the game properly move on.
Twitter: @barrettdamian
