Lance Collard’s nine-week ban, with two weeks suspended, is the most recent hefty sanction handed down by the AFL within the league’s current crackdown on homophobic language.
It’s the eighth time in three years that AFL-listed gamers or coaches have been discovered by the league to have used homophobic language in video games.
When discovering the St Kilda 21-year-old responsible of utilizing the slur in a VFL match after a sensational and prolonged disciplinary listening to final week, the league stated it had “no tolerance for using homophobic language in our sport”.
“Its expectations have been made extraordinarily clear to all of our gamers, together with by training that each one AFL and VFL gamers obtain,” the league stated in a quick assertion.
But the dealing with of the case, together with the primary AFL disciplinary tribunal, has no winners.
Former West Coast participant Mitch Brown, who final yr got here out as the primary brazenly bisexual man in AFL historical past, posted on social media over the weekend the abuse he was copping relating to the Collard resolution.
Mitch Brown laments lack of assist for queer AFL gamers
He stated when homophobic language was topical within the information cycle, its use at all times elevated in corners of the broader soccer neighborhood.
“These incidents get framed as one-off errors, however they’re actually a mirrored image of a broader tradition that hasn’t shifted,” Brown informed ABC Sport.
“Over the weekend, I noticed a few of the most vile homophobia play out on-line, and it is horrible for the neighborhood to should learn and see it.
“Plenty of the responses body queer individuals [as] ‘too delicate’, prefer it’s simply phrases and we should always harden up — however we’re not out right here making an attempt to be the enjoyable police. What is the various? Keep silent and simply cop it?
“When all of it performs out publicly, it is the queer neighborhood that finally ends up copping it from followers, quite than seeing any actual accountability or lasting behavioural change.”
Whereas St Kilda launched a press release late on Tuesday evening saying it was “dissatisfied with the sanction” and would “contemplate avenues of attraction”, the membership acknowledged the harm the method had triggered the neighborhood.
“The matter has had a major affect on Lance and the membership will proceed to assist him by means of this course of,” St Kilda stated, after its lawyer argued within the listening to the suspension might have the potential to “smash his life”.
Collard’s disciplinary listening to units new precedent
The assertion went on: “We additionally recognise the affect the general public nature of this matter has had, significantly on the LGBTQIA+ and First Nations communities.
Collard is a Noongar and Yamatji man.
The earlier most high-profile sanction was towards Adelaide Crows star Izak Rankine, who’s of Kokatha and Ngarrindjeri descent, and earlier than that Jeremy Finalyson in 2024 of Yorta Yorta descent.Â
Since Rankine’s four-week sanction — argued down from 5 — Rankine has labored with Adelaide’s distinguished satisfaction group, the Rainbow Crows.
The AFL Gamers Affiliation (AFLPA) lamented the method behind the sanctions and referred to as for a “more practical and united method” that took into consideration the various backgrounds of gamers.
“The tribunal has, rightly, acknowledged that points corresponding to racism and homophobia are troublesome and delicate points and the style of coping with them just isn’t enhanced if the place to begin is a fierce debate over whether or not the phrases have been used’,” stated AFLPA CEO James Gallagher, who stated the union was dissatisfied that Collard’s proof of his innocence was not believed.
“We’ll proceed to completely assist him [Collard] and the membership by means of this course of together with exploring any choices to attraction.
“A holistic resolution that does not focus solely on punitive measures can solely be realised by means of significant engagement with LGBTIQA+ neighborhood leaders, training that displays numerous backgrounds and experiences of gamers, alongside a disciplinary course of that’s match for objective, minimises and cures the harms triggered and shifts behaviour.”
The Eddie Betts Basis has additionally recognised by means of its academy the necessity for training for younger individuals from distant and rural areas and has offered that intervention.
The organisation has maintained a constructive dialogue with the AFLPA relating to the implementation of best-practice pointers and advisory protocols.
There has additionally been concern the listening to could deter different gamers from talking out towards or reporting different homophobic language they overhear.
The 2 Frankston Dolphins VFL gamers who gave proof towards Collard have been cross-examined for a mixed time of a couple of hour, in what some studies labelled as “gruelling”.
With the gamers publicly named, it opened them as much as public scrutiny. Each grew to become the topic of disagreeable — and at occasions abusive — social media feedback and posts.
When tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson QC handed down Collard’s sanction, he cited Delight Cup CEO Hayley Conway’s proof within the first listening to, the place she famous the numerous affect homophobic language might have on the queer neighborhood in sport.
Lance Collard, pictured throughout a spherical 9 match between Dockers and Magpies in 2025, has been handed a nine-week ban, with two weeks suspended. (Getty Photos: AFL Images/Janelle St Pierre)
St Kilda referred to as Conway as a witness as a result of she helped ship Collard’s Delight in Sport coaching — a requirement handed down by the AFL after he was discovered to have used a homophobic slur in 2024.
She stated the Delight Cup inclusion training classes concerned ensuring contributors had sense of who LGBTQIA+ individuals have been, and stated they used true-life tales and case research on the affect of homophobic and transphobic language on individuals who have been trying to be a part of the sport.
Conway added that LGBTQIA+ discrimination was not distinctive to AFL however was as an alternative current in all types of sport in Australia and that addressing it was not “about endeavor high-profile sanctions alone” however quite ensuring leagues and governing our bodies have been “really investing within the issues that stop the hurt from occurring” as a collective.
“I believe it is essential that penalties should not solely targeted on the person when it’s a collective cultural and society-wide problem,” she stated.
