A North Melbourne fan who reached over the fence at Etihad Stadium and manhandled Port Adelaide's Daniel Motlop faces a 12-month ban from AFL matches.

The club expects the cheer squad member to write an apology to Motlop and accept the year-long suspension.

The fan either shoved or punched the Power forward in the upper body during the `Roos win on Saturday.

While Motlop was unhurt and played down the incident, representatives of both clubs have reacted strongly.

"It's a no-go zone in terms of touching players," Kangaroos football manager Donald McDonald said.

"I'm sure that particular person, from our side of things, will write Daniel Motlop a letter of apology.

"It was very disappointing and we'll be speaking to the hierarchy of the cheer squad.

"The early indications are they'll look to suspend him for 12 months."

The offending fan is believed to have voluntarily left the stadium immediately after Saturday's incident.

Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus said there needed to be a clear message that spectators touching players would not be tolerated.

"There wasn't too much in that, but who knows where it can lead to from there," Primus told the Seven Network's AFL Game Day.

"That's just got to be a dead-set, black-and-white rule, you cannot touch the players at all.

"It's not as if Mots went anywhere looking for it at all, he was copping a fair bit, probably, as an ex-North Melbourne player, but it was totally unacceptable."

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