Pat Voss trains with Fremantle Dockers as Shai Bolton and Max Gawn have their say on his taunting fine

Fremantle star Shai Bolton believes forward Pat Voss is remorseful for the incident which led to him being fined for taunting Melbourne’s Harrison Petty on Saturday, but wants his teammate to continue to play on the edge.

Voss was fined $1000 for rubbing Petty’s head and making cry-baby motions after the AFL deemed him guilty of misconduct. The enthusiastic Docker has been heavily criticised by experts and spoke to Fremantle’s leadership group about his actions.

He wasn’t as vocal as usual during Tuesday’s training session, but Bolton said the players want Voss to still be himself.

“Inside he is still pretty vocal. I think he was just locked in and trying to get through training. Obviously there’s stuff going around about him. I think he’s pretty remorseful about it,” Bolton said.

“We like him playing how he is. We know he can get a bit fiery but at the end of the day it is just a game of football.”

Melbourne captain Max Gawn said he has never liked players rubbing an opponent on the head. The eight-time All-Australian believes there is still room for banter in AFL games but doesn’t want Voss’ actions to be repeated.

Gawn was just metres from the incident and admitted it looked worse on TV than he felt during the game.

“It looks worse on TV than it did live,” Gawn told Triple M.

“The crowd is incredibly loud, so I didn’t hear anything that Voss said. I just saw what he was doing to his head, which I didn’t like.

“I’m surprised there was a fine. I didn’t know that was a thing. Obviously they’re trying to stamp it out. I personally don’t do it (taunt), but I don’t mind it when my teammates do some sort of it, but not to that extent.

“The rubbing of the head is a look that I don’t like AFL-wide.

“Six umpires were surrounding four players, so there wasn’t much we could do. I couldn’t hear anything, so there wasn’t much I could do to remonstrate. Nobody has asked Harry how he feels about this. I don’t think he cares.”