AFL club figures continue to unanimously support Melbourne midfielder Jack Trengove over his controversial three-match suspension.

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse, Brisbane captain Jonathan Brown, St Kilda utility Brendon Goddard and North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw have all sympathised with Trengove over the severity of the penalty.

The Demons failed in their appeal against Trengove's suspension on Thursday night.

Trengove was suspended for a tackle he laid on Adelaide opponent Patrick Dangerfield, who suffered concussion when his head hit the ground.

The AFL have sent a "please explain" letter to Melbourne after several of Trengove's teammates used Twitter to slam the original tribunal verdict on Tuesday night.

Malthouse said Trengove would have been trying to play with more intensity after Melbourne's poor loss the week before.

"After Melbourne's game against West Coast, there would have been an urgency about Melbourne's tackling, their endeavour and their want," Malthouse said on OneHD after the appeal was rejected.

"He's taken it on board, to be as strong and as hard as he can.

"It's just that he did lock him up ... as the ball went out, he did sling.

"Once you sling a player, you have to take the consequences.

"But three weeks? It's very strong."

Goddard, like Malthouse, said the AFL rules were clear on so-called sling tackles where a player's head hit the ground.

But he said there was confusion among players about how heavily they could tackle.

"The rules are in place, but Jack is pretty unfortunate to get three weeks, he didn't have any intent to hurt Patrick at all," Goddard said on Channel Nine's The Footy Show.

"I guess there is some grey area (for) players."

Brown said the AFL rules on tackling needed to be revisited.

"Jack Trengove would have thought his opponent had the ball all the way to the ground - accidents happen in footy," Brown said.

"It would be goodto probably clean that rule up a little bit, because it's a great part of the physical part of the game.

"We can show our aggression by our tackling, pretty much the bump has gone out of the game, it's too dangerous to go for a bump.

"The tackling is our last great opportunity to show our strength."

Brayshaw said he had not heard one person outside the AFL say that the three-match ban was warranted, while former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon called it "a shocking outcome".

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