The AFL has been forced to issue a warning to Geelong after Max Holmes went at the umpires in Friday night’s loss to Brisbane.

The 22-year-old was upset about a non-call on the ground and initially complained to the nearest whistleblower on the field.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: AFL forced to take action over Geelong star’s forbidden act.

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Holmes then went to the bench and continued to express his frustrations with the standard of umpiring towards the officials nearby.

He was described as delivering “some stern words”.

“The AFL took exception to this,” Mitch Cleary reported on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters.

Footage from moments later showed Cats skipper Patrick Dangerfield having to calm down Holmes.

The fallout followed on Monday.

“A call from the AFL to the Cats today just to reaffirm players should not be engaging with umpires on the bench,” Cleary reported.

“No sanction, just a word of warning.”

Port Adelaide premiership player Kane Cornes said he was disappointed with the warning coming days later.

“Pay a free kick or a 50m penalty, or sanction them on the ground,” he said.

“I get sick of the umpire warnings — ‘hey don’t say this, it’s a warning’. It’s either a free kick because it’s offensive language or it’s not.”

Nick Riewoldt added: “That hurts a player more than anything, a free kick or a 50m penalty.”

Holmes is the latest Geelong star to be warned by the AFL this year, after Bailey Smith was cautioned over his social media activity.

Smith referenced drug use in a post last month.

A fan left a comment saying “nose beers after the game mate”, to which Smith replied “na bro, after the flag maybe tho”.

Nose beers is another name for cocaine.

The comment was later deleted, but not before it was widely circulated.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said the league have been in contact with Geelong over the past 48 hours.

“We are talking with Geelong and talking with Bailey and we wouldn’t want to see it again,” he said.

“Bailey is a role model and he has to be cognisant of that when he’s engaging in the public or on social media.

“I know that the club are talking to Bailey and counselling him about that. Reminding him that he is a role model for hundreds and thousands of boys and girls out there.

“But in relation to Bailey he delivered the comments, he put up an apology and I absolutely don’t condone it. Drug use is a serious thing and shouldn’t be joked about. If he has time again, I’m not sure he’d do it.”

Outgoing AFL Players’ Association CEO Paul Marsh said Smith made an “error”.

“What I will say about Bailey is I think he is a breath of fresh air for the industry and I think the industry is crying out for players to show their personality and people flock to him,” he said.

“Sometimes players make errors of judgement, Bailey’s made one here.

“Everyone loves him and is hanging off everything he’s doing and saying. It’s not something that we want glorified, illicit drugs, it’s not something that necessarily sits comfortably. But there’s an element of him showing some personality. I took it as something that was tongue in cheek.

“Maybe, with his time again, he wouldn’t do it. But, at the same time, I don’t think we want to take him down for actually showing a bit of personality at a time where I think it’s getting more difficult to show personality because of the criticism that flows when people do.

Geelong coach Chris Scott had already defended Smith.

“My take on it, not just in the footy world but in society, you can’t have it both ways,” Scott said on the ABC.

“If you are going to embrace this idea that the new world is sharing everything online and bantering and having a bit of fun, but as soon as it goes over the line we all have conniptions.

“We all like comics that are on edge, but as soon as they say something that is confronting to someone’s sensibility, we want to cancel them.

“I just think that’s a loss of perspective, and with Bailey, remember he is 23.

“You’ve got to be careful that these things don’t drift, and drift, and drift until it becomes something uncontrollable, but I think it’s an example of keeping everything in perspective.

“It’s a balance between, certainly not condoning behaviour, you prefer didn’t happen, but also keeping it in perspective as much as possible.”