South Australian football great Graham Cornes has attacked the guidelines used to determine head-high contact after Geelong's Darren Milburn escaped a rough-conduct charge despite leaving his son Chad, a Port Adelaide star, with a broken nose at the weekend.

The second-quarter incident also left Cornes "pretty dopey" for the rest of the game as the Power crashed to a 95-point loss at Skilled Stadium on Sunday.

While the incident appeared remarkably similar to the one which cost Hawthorn forward Lance Franklin a one-match suspension a week earlier for rough conduct on Bulldogs' star Jason Akermanis, Milburn escaped without punishment, adding to claims of inconsistency by the match review panel.

The three-man panel concluded Milburn's late hit was "not unreasonable in the circumstances".

Cornes had just handballed the ball to a teammate, leaving Milburn, according to the panel, no time to avoid contact.

The veteran Cat then braced himself with the pair primarily clashing body to body before Milburn's head made accidental contact to Cornes' face.

"It was deemed that the force used by player Milburn was not excessive in the circumstances, that Cornes was involved in the passage of play and that Cornes could influence the contest," the assessment said.

That Milburn didn't at least have to face the tribunal is understood to have bemused some Port Adelaide officials.

Cornes refused to directly comment on the incident, but added his voice to calls for an overhaul of the guidelines used by the match review panel.

"The match review committee has a really difficult job because of the ridiculous metrics they have to work within," he said.

"Of course, the number of head-high incidents have been reduced but that could have happened without these ridiculously complex set of circumstances that have been established.

"I have been on about it for months. What does negligent mean? It has been a ridiculous system."

What Cornes did reveal was that his son wouldn't have "dobbed" Milburn in anyway had the incident been referred to the tribunal.

As Cornes has high respect for Milburn, the veteran Port defender would have stuck by the unwritten players' code.

"Chad got his nose smashed and he was in a bit of a dream world for the rest of the game. He was pretty dopey," Cornes said.

"I spoke to Chad after the game. He said he (Milburn) was a good guy, he was not going to burn him.

"It never came down to that (the tribunal) so he is ok with it."

The match review panel, chaired by former Essendon and Colingwood midfielder and AFL umpire Mark Fraser, has been under fire for several inconsistent decisions this season on head-high bumps.

AFL operations manager Adrian Anderson had declared the head "sacrosanct" but some club officials have now questioned this.

St Kilda's Justin Koschitzke was suspended for three-matches in Round 1 for a head-high charge on Swan Nick Malceski, yet a week later a ferocious hit to the head of Geelong's Joel Selwood by Hawk Michael Osborne warranted only a one-week ban.

West Coast's Shannon Hurn was fortunate to escape with a two-match ban for a high bump on Port Adelaide's Daniel Stewart, who required a stretcher to leave the field.