Blues cop Twitter fines

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Carlton have been slapped with a $7,500 fine by the AFL after comments tweeted and re-tweeted from Marc Murphy, Jeremy Laidler and Jarrad Waite criticising umpires.

The trio of players - all on the sidelines due to injury - took to Twitter to vent their disgust at a series of umpiring decisions in West Coast's 10-point win over Carlton last Friday, with a holding-the-ball decision against Aaron Joseph being particularly controversial.

Murphy posted, 'Ruined a good game those blokes' on his account while Laidler said, 'Are you not meant to try and b 1st in at the footy anymore. If u do u will b pinned for holding the ball. SHOCKING!!!!'

Waite only re-tweeted a comment his wife posted, which said '3 votes to number 6 wearing green', but has also been included in the punishment.

In addition to the fine, Carlton have also been issued with a formal warning after club coach Brett Ratten made comments regarding umpiring decisions in his post-match press conference.

"The AFL will not tolerate public denigration or humiliation of umpires as we continue to face very real problems with the retention of umpires throughout Australia," Anderson said on Tuesday.

"The Sanders Report into Umpiring highlighted the need for the AFL to have a zero-tolerance approach to criticism of umpires.

"A player's use of social media to make comments around umpiring will be subject to the AFL-s rules in exactly the same way as comments made in a formal interview or any other media environment, as the AFL competition must continue to set a positive example on conduct towards umpires."

In another twist to the tale, however, AFL umpiring boss Jeff Gieschen admitted the Blues player's may have been right to complain as the umpire did get the decision wrong.

"We've deemed this to be an incorrect decision, based around the fact that, yes, Joseph did dive on the ball - you see him slide in - but he does actually handball," Gieschen told the AFL website's It's Your Call segment on Tuesday.

"When he handballed the ball away it was trapped by (Jack) Darling, (Michael) Jamison and a number of other players, and from that point the ball was going nowhere.

"So we probably would have preferred the umpire just to blow his whistle and ball it up in this situation.

"So Joseph was certainly harshly treated."

In other AFL news, Collingwood midfielder Dane Swan has lost his appeal against a tripping charge in the club's Queen's Birthday win over Melbourne.

Swan - who could have accepted 45 demerit points and a reprimand if he pleaded guilty to the charge from the Match Review Panel - was instead given 60 demerit points, and a reprimand.

He is still eligible to play against West Coast on Saturday and is also still in contention for the 2012 Brownlow Medal, an award he won last season.

All other sanctions handed down by the Match Review Panel from Round 12 action have been accepted, with Port Adelaide's Matt Thomas to miss the next two matches for engaging in rough conduct against Western Bulldogs midfielder Tom Liberatore.

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