Shane Crawford calls on AFL to give lifetime bans to those involved in Etihad Stadium brawl

There were disturbing scenes at Etihad Stadium with footy fans engaging in a wild brawl on Friday night, and AFL legend Shane Crawford has called for the league to come down hard on those involved.

During the game between Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs numerous patrons were filmed fighting, with the footage shared on social media. It's one of many incidents to occur at the ground in the past week, and Crawford wants the AFL to step in.

"Not a good look, the AFL needs to stamp this out immediately," Crawford said on Sports Sunday. 

"It's a family friendly game, we want our kids to go along to these matches and we don't need them to see things like this.

"The AFL need to come down quick on it.

"It's a great stress relief going to football matches, but when it gets to that stage they have to eliminate that totally out of the game."

Fellow Sports Sunday panellist Peter FitzSimons went a step further, labelling the poor crowd behaviour as "un-Australian". 

"That is unAustralian," he said.

"Other countries have fences between fans and heavyweight security to keep fans apart, but in Australia fans going at each other like that, c'mon."

When asked what Crawford would propose the AFL do to end unruly incidents like the one on Friday night, the former Hawthorn star had a swift reply.

"They have to ban these people for life," Crawford said. 

"The AFL have cameras everywhere at these venues these days so they can track them down.

"It is serious, they'll eliminate them forever and at least they're stopping it there."