Port Adelaide's Daniel Motlop and Hawthorn's Clinton Young were the beneficiaries as the AFL match review panel added to the confusion surrounding bumps on Monday.

Both Motlop and Young seemed set for stints on the sidelines after being reported over weekend collisions, but were instead both offered reprimands by the panel.

In the only other case, Melbourne ruckman Paul Johnson was cleared of a match-day report of striking Hawthorn skipper Sam Mitchell in Saturday's pre-season game in Launceston.

Power forward Motlop and Hawks wingman Young were both charged with level one rough conduct, with both able to accept reprimands by offering early guilty pleas.

Motlop was booked for crashing into Sydney's Jesse White after the youngster had handballed in the first quarter of Port's win over the Swans in Canberra on Sunday.

Motlop's feet were both off the ground as he made high contact with White.

Premiership player Young was charged after knocking Melbourne's Aaron Davey off his feet, after the Demon had leapt for an overhead mark in the first quarter of the Launceston game.

Helping the two players' cause, they were ruled to have acted negligently, rather than the more severe ratings of reckless or intentional conduct.

The panel's decision did nothing to clear the waters after the uncertainty caused when Collingwood successfully appealed over a suspension handed to skipper Nick Maxwell last week.

He had earlier been hit with a four-game ban by the tribunal over a bump which left West Coast youngster Patrick McGinnity which a broken jaw.

Magpies veteran Tarkyn Lockyer said it was heartening to have their captain back, after he was set to miss at least the opening home and away round of his first season in charge.

"It's good to have Maxy back, he's a terrific leader and great presence out on the ground," Lockyer said.

"But in saying that, we've got a lot of leaders who are pretty good out there at the moment."

Lockyer said the incident had not caused Collingwood to reassess their approach to physical clashes.

"We haven't discussed it at all, it's just one of those anomalies in football and hopefully it doesn't raise its head again," he said.

But Swans co-captain Craig Bolton said players were likely to tread more carefully, given uncertainty about what sort of contact led to a ban.

"As a player at the moment you've just got to be really conservative and make the ball your sole object," he said.

"There's a little bit of a grey area there still and if you risk that you risk getting weeks, so it's not something you want to take on."

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