Barry Hall has had better weeks - wrist surgery, a seven-week AFL suspension and now his plea for a send-off rule has received no support.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and coaches Mick Malthouse and Mark Thompson reacted negatively to Hall's call on Friday morning in a newspaper column.

The Sydney key forward said he should have been sent off for the knockout punch he gave West Coast opponent Brent Staker last Saturday night at ANZ Stadium.

The blow led to Hall's seven-match ban and Staker is out of the Eagles team this Sunday with concussion.

"We have considered it before," Demetriou told the Fairfax Radio Network.

"If what happened the other day became something we started to see regularly, of course we would consider it.

"It works in other sports and has been used to great effect, but (what) we saw the other day was the first time we have seen an incident like that in the last seven to 10 years."

Geelong coach Thompson said it would be "silly" to change the AFL rules after one serious incident.

"I don't like compulsive change of rules," Thompson said.

"Any change of rule should be well and truly debated, thought out, communicated and I think to change it on one punch would be quite silly."

Collingwood's Malthouse is against the principle of the send-off rule, saying it is too heavy a penalty - especially if it turns out to the wrong call.

"I have thought about it, I don't like it," he said.

"When it's clean-cut like that (Hall), there's always a case.

"We've seen too often with the red card in soccer, players sent off only to be looked at and you go `well, the bloke's taken a dive' or `it's not really worthy of a red card, it should have been a yellow card'.

"Everywhere along the line, we've got to be so cautious of what our actions are and I feel a red card would be far too harsh, if it's wrong."

Malthouse has also expressed concern about what long-term effects that Staker might suffer as a result of the Hall punch.

He said there are "plenty" of players who have suffered long-term effects after a heavy hit.

"There are a lot of players who, for one reason or another ... have taken a good shot ... and the player has been affected by that to a degree," he said.

"It's detracted from his ability to play the way he may well have been playing.

"Whether it's an obvious injury or a psychological injury, things do happen.

"Some players, it does affect them for a long time, some players can get over it like that."

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