Travis Cloke has joined the call for clarification on what contact is allowed in the AFL, but admits players will keep testing the rules regardless.

He strongly backed his captain Nick Maxwell, who last week became the first player to successfully appeal against his tribunal verdict under the current system.

Maxwell had received a four-game penalty for rough conduct against West Coast youngster Patrick McGinnity, an incident that has renewed widespread debate about the bump.

Last Friday, the appeals board cleared Maxwell and the AFL are awaiting a detailed report on the three-man panel's findings.

The league will look at the findings before deciding whether they need to change their rules on body contact.

"He (Maxwell) was pretty confident from the word go," Cloke said of the case.

"The AFL has got to come out with a clean interpretation on how it is and how it's meant to be laid."

Cloke added that Maxwell played a strong, direct style of football and that is what the fans want.

"That's the way Nick plays his football, he plays it along the line ... I think that's the way the game should be played, it makes it such a better spectacle," he said.

"Players do want to push the boundary just that little bit, see how far we can go.

"We're not going to change our football just because of one incident.

"I guess that's just football, you lay a hip here and there and they look at it differently, a couple of weeks later it could be looked at differently again - it's just the way it goes."

Richmond onballer Daniel Jackson said players acted on instinct, but added there had been some advice from the coaching staff.

"We've just been told to be aware that if a bloke has his head over the footy, just be aware of that ... just to be thinking about it," he said.

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