Richmond great Matthew Richardson calls out AFL for in-season rule change after Rhyan Mansell's ban

Richmond Tigers great Matthew Richardson believes games earlier in the season have been "compromised" after Rhyan Mansell was given a three-match ban

Mansell was punished by the AFL tribunal for shoving St Kilda's Liam O'Connell into a marking contest and the ruling appears to have set a precedent in the future.

Similar incidents have occurred during the pre-season and during the early rounds with calls for the move to be outlawed.

READ MORE: Lockyer rejects 'crazy' contract ploy to lock up Haas

READ MORE: F1 star's angry Ricciardo clash 'changed mindset'

READ MORE: Selector urges DCE to make Origin call as No.7 dilemma looms

A memo was also sent out to clubs in the pre-season, warning players could be found responsible if injuries occur. O'Connell suffered a heavy concussion from the incident.

Richardson believes the league shouldn't be making changes on the run.

"I didn't think he'd get off because it was pretty clear the AFL wanted to clamp down on it," he told 3AW Radio on Wednesday afternoon.

"The thing with me is we've got to stop changing things during the season because I feel now there were four or five of these incidents that probably could've been suspensions earlier in the year and even in the pre-season.

"It feels like they're compromised now, those games.

"I think if you're going to change rules, you change them at the start of the year and that's it. If you change a rule halfway during the year and then all of a sudden that rule could've effected results earlier in the season, they're compromised for mine."

Since the incident on Saturday, defence of Mansell has been based around the "forward craft" with Tigers coach Adam Yze addressing the matter on Wednesday.

"The hardest thing is he would probably do it again if we were training out here today and he's in that same situation where someone's holding him and he wants to get access to wherever the ball is landing," Yze said.

"That's part of forward craft, so we've just got to make sure we can coach them through that now and get that real clear understanding of what they can and can't do."

GWS captain Toby Greene sympathised with Mansell on Fox Footy.

"I understand still there's an element of danger in what he does, but the one's where they're in close and they push off late, I still think that's reasonable and fair," he said.

Richardson agreed but didn't think it was done the right way.

"It is part of your forward craft to release off your opponent, maybe not push into traffic," he said.

"I understand why they did it, I don't disagree with players actually being suspended for it but you can't change rules during the year, that's my biggest gripe with it."