In itself, his attack on Port Adelaide's Brad Ebert was petty rather than brutal. It is the context that makes it damnable.

For a start, it was disproportionate. In one of those acts that somehow is considered part of the game, Ebert had nudged him from behind as he jogged by, both of them far from the play. Viney retaliated with a two-handed shove, then a right, left, right combination to Ebert's head.

Ebert was more surprised than he was stung. Whether Viney's fists were closed or open is hard to discern. It is also beside the point. The strikes were to Ebert's head, rightly a no-go zone. Viney did not even try to disguise them by holding Ebert's jumper as he went at him. That is the sort of honesty that is not best policy.

One of the burning issues of our times is the damage done when young men thoughtlessly attack one another. Only on Monday, one was found guilty of murder. No, the scale is not nearly the same, and yes, the rules are different on the football ground. But they are not suspended altogether. By ever so few degrees, the sight of one footballer belting another in the head legitimises the act more broadly. The AFL knows this, which is why it has lent its weight to various campaigns against civil violence.

So Viney was way out of order, and not for the first time. He is loved by Melbourne fans and known throughout the competition for his manic attack on the footy. It has been so since his junior days. It is at the heart of his game; it makes him the fast-emerging star that he is.

But he needs to develop enough self-awareness to know when to check his impulses. Earlier this season, he was lucky to escape sanction when he attacked Richmond full-back Alex Rance. The incident is better remembered for Rance's immediately preceding lash at Jack Watts, which cost him two matches. Viney was flying the flag, so-called. But he flew it with such vigour he might easily have ended up with a suspension of his own.

Footy is a high-impact sport, players always in a state constant of high tension and hyper alert. Some allowance is necessary, a little leeway made. But blows of any kind to the head are inexcusable, more so when off the play.

As it happens, Viney's suspension is an academic matter now; a broken knuckle will keep him out for three or four weeks anyway. But as a principle, a one-match ban is insufficient. Whatever the guidelines say, iti implies to followers that Viney's action was at the level of accidental. It was not.