Replays appeared to show that Rioli made some contact with Oliver's head on Saturday and the huge hit left the No.4 draft pick dazed for several seconds on the MCG turf.

The four-time premiership Hawk received a $1000 fine for the incident, which the match review panel ultimately deemed to be careless with low impact to Oliver's head after amending its original statement.

Rioli's involved! The Hawk clashes with Oliver before slotting a goal from a free kick #AFLDeesHawks https://t.co/TFdrXlYUOM— AFL (@AFL) August 6, 2016

"I think he was incredibly lucky and the giveaway was that there were two different press releases from the match review panel yesterday – one of them came out and one shortly after," Humphery-Smith told SEN.

"The first version said 'low impact to the body', so it's incredibly confusing.

"If we were back even one year ago, Cyril is out for a number of weeks.

"That's another good example of reckless conduct ... if that's low impact, that's extraordinary."

Humphery-Smith said that while Rioli was saved by the fact that Oliver wasn't badly affected by the collision, he insisted that the potential for harm should dictate penalties rather than how much damage is actually caused by a hit.

"The bloke he hit bounced up – he was down for a little bit – but he hit a tough one and that in my view should not dictate what penalty Cyril has imposed on him," he said.

"Cyril should be missing weeks for that hit because, as we know, he elected to bump, he didn't tackle, the ball was in the vicinity and I think Cyril is very lucky to be playing this week ... we need a deterrent."

Rioli's teammate Sam Mitchell came under scrutiny as well for his hit to Jack Watts' face, but Humphrey-Smith was satisfied that the former premiership captain was cleared and agreed that Mitchell used an open palm rather than a fist and that there was insufficient force employed.

Both players are now free to face North Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday.