The GC defender had every right to prevent a goal by touching the ball, its only an issue that his punch went over for a behind with nobody near him.
IMO a defender should always be allowed to defend a goal with no chance of coughing up a free kick & goal anyway because of a series of poorly worded rules. You just cannot outlaw defending, but team up the deliberately rushed behind rule with deliberate out of bounds rule & that's exactly what you have - a player in danger of breaking a rule because he chose to prevent a goal ...
Don't change defending your team's goals - remove the stupid rules that cause all the controversies in the first place!
By the letter of the laws the GC player should've been penalized ... and there's nothing more stupid than that!