A blanket policy is admin’s prerogative but it tends to have a chilling effect on any forum and is clearly not being applied in a blanket fashion (i.e., some jokes remain).
I don’t think obvious sarcasm could ever amount to libel (the effect of the words was to ridicule the post and therefore support the player - i.e., it would not have any chance of causing him serious harm (the test under the Act) or diminish his standing (the common law test for libel).
Anyway doesn’t matter, keen not to scapegoat players. Hopefully all perform better going forward.