Horror death threat to an AFL coach or poor attempt at a joke? Footy fans are divided by 15-word message that got fan banned for five years - what do you think?

Footy fans have slammed the five-year ban handed to a Collingwood fan who made a death threat against Carlton coach Michael Voss, with many declaring the 15-word message at the centre of the scandal is just an attempt at humour gone badly wrong.

The full 15-word message surfaced on Thursday night after it was revealed the AFL has banned the fan responsible from all matches and events until 2031.

According to the AFL, the Magpies member sent the threat to the MCG's antisocial hotline service during Collingwood's victory over the Blues on Friday, July 4.

'I'd like to report 23 missing persons and pre-emptively report the murder of Michael Voss,' the message read.

While the use of the word 'murder' clearly crosses a line, many fans went online to say the punishment was far too harsh because to them, the statement sounded like a very poor joke.

'This is very clearly a joke in reference to fed up Carlton fans who literally vandalised their own footy club and caused Michael Voss to require personal security at his own teams VFL match the week prior,' one wrote.

'Even Carlton supporters on 3AW are saying the reaction to Michael Voss being the subject of a death threat are false and a media beat up, they believe it was a very poor attempt at humour and at no time was Voss threatened at all,' added another.

'AFL need to reconsider the penalty, this is outrageous, so out of touch,' a third wrote.

'5 year ban for that is way overs, pretty stiff imo…Rioli got 1 week for threatening violence on another player,' another fan commented, referring to the scandal surrounding Port Adelaide star Willie Rioli earlier this year.

'A huge overreaction to what was a poorly worded joke. Tired of these disingenuous reactions and fake narratives to things that everyone knows wasn't the intention. What's with that???' said another supporter.

Yet another commenter raised the point that the first part of the message referencing the 23 missing people - which incorrectly refers to the 22-man squad AFL teams use on game day - bears a striking similarity to humorous social media posts made by police forces after big games.

'I thought it was a legit threat made from someone pretending to be a Bluuz fan when I saw the penalty. Turns out it was just the same lame joke made by Vic Police and it wasn’t even sent to Voss or anyone really it’s not even directed at anyone. Give the man back his membership,' they wrote. 

That post was accompanied by a Facebook message published by Victoria Police in the wake of Geelong's dominant win over the Sydney Swans in the 2022 grand final, which read: 'We're preparing to assist @nswpolice in the search for 22 missing swans, last seen wearing red and white at around 2:30pm in the Melbourne area.'

However, other fans supported the long ban - or said it should be harsher.

'Lucky it wasn't longer,' one wrote.

'Right decision was made. Can't just say that despite it clearly being tongue in cheek,' another said.

Voss - whose team fell to a fourth straight loss when they were soundly beaten by Brisbane on Thursday night - hit out at the threat earlier this week.

'I've also seen the dark side of football, where we blame, we become victims and it's this environment where things are quite toxic,' he said. 

'We think showing passion is about anger – and it's not about that at all.'