Western Bulldogs midfielder Daniel Cross is free to play in Saturday night's preliminary final after no charges were laid from his "big collision" with Sydney's Jude Bolton.

The AFL said on Monday that its match review panel looked at an incident from the second quarter of last Saturday night's MCG semi-final in which Cross made high contact with Bolton.

The panel found that Bolton was pushed into the line of fire after Bolton was nudged by his Swans team-mate Kieren Jack.

"It was the view of the match review panel that this contact pushed Bolton in the path of Cross and caused Cross to make high contact," the AFL said in a statement.

Cross had braced to make a legal bump until the contact from Jack which altered Bolton's line, the AFL said.

"The match review panel said it believed the front-on bump by Cross on Bolton was caused by circumstances outside Cross' control, which could not be reasonably foreseen," the AFL said.

Cross said he was confident of avoiding a report or suspension ahead of the preliminary final against St Kilda.

"My eyes are fixated on the ball at all times," he told Foxtel's "On The Couch" program on Monday night.

"It was a big collision but my intent was to get the ball and he (Bolton) was knocked a bit into my path.

"If a player maliciously intends to do that to a player then definitely they should get rubbed out.

"Every player wants to be protected on the ground.

"There are collisions that accidentally happen as well."

A groggy Bolton jogged from the field but soon returned.

The incident was not seen as reportable and no further action was taken.

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