Collard’s extraordinary AFL disciplinary hearing sets new precedent

Source : ABC NEWS

St Kilda’s Lance Collard became the first AFL player to contest a charge of conduct unbecoming this week when he was found guilty by an AFL tribunal of using a homophobic slur against an opponent during a VFL match. 

It was the eighth time in three years AFL-listed players or coaches had been found by the league to have used homophobic language in games, but the first time a slur had been contested.

Collard’s disciplinary hearing stretched to nearly five hours on Thursday, and the decision came late on Friday after day-two deliberations.

The key evidence came from two Frankston Dolphins VFL players, who said unequivocally they heard the slur. Collard maintained he said a word that rhymed with it.

Regardless of the result, the extraordinary hearing was always going to set a new precedent.

It still might take a turn, with the Saints saying in a statement the club would “consider its position, including avenues of appeal” after being “naturally disappointed” with the tribunal’s decision.

A new AFL precedent

Conduct unbecoming is among the AFL’s most serious charges and has never been disputed by players or coaches after they’ve been found to have broken the catch-all regulation rule.

It dates back to Hawthorn legend Leigh Matthews being criminally charged with assault and deregistered from the VFL for four weeks in 1985 after breaking his opponent’s jaw with an off-the-ball punch.

Since then, players and coaches have been sanctioned for anything that brings the game into disrepute or prejudices the league’s reputation.

Recently, Ex-Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was handed a controversial $20,000 fine for his post-match sledging of Hawthorn players after his side’s 2024 semifinal win — a move which he later said he felt shamed and exploited by.

The same year, six GWS players were suspended and seven more were fined for their conduct at an end-of-season function which involved costumes and skits around the theme “controversial couples”.

Sydney youngster Caiden Cleary was suspended last year after police caught him trying to buy drugs and Bailey Smith in 2022 after photos emerged showing him with a bag of white powder.

Collard was already suspended for six games during the league’s 2024-25 crackdown on homophobic language when a number of hefty high-profile sanctions were also handed down to Izak Rankine (four games), Wil Powell (five games), Jeremy Finlayson (three games), Jack Graham (four games) and Riak Andrew (five games).

While the Crows successfully argued Rankine’s suspension down to four matches from five, in none of these cases was innocence pleaded.

But with Collard maintaining his innocence, details usually kept disclosed were made public.

It is rare to hear directly from players or parties involved in such cases outside of press statements centred around an apology.

The added transparency, however, came with the cost of some worrying it could deter players from reporting such slurs in the future.

Will this deter others from speaking up?

Collard’s hearing comes at a time when people are being asked to speak up about racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination. The message has been clear through campaigns, advocates and workplace training: If you see or hear something, say something.

St Kilda’s lawyer made the point at the end of the tribunal that they were not arguing the two VFL Frankston players who gave evidence were lying about what they thought they heard; just that they misheard it.

Those players ended up being cross-examined by the Saints’ lawyer for a combined time of more than one hour, in what some reports labelled as “gruelling”.

One said he was hesitant to give evidence when the case went to a hearing and was told he could be compelled, legally requiring him to attend the tribunal.

With the players publicly named, it opened them up to public scrutiny, particularly on social media, where the football community has weighed in on the evidence given and the decision.

While not relevant in this case, in incidents of homophobic slurs, a public hearing could inadvertently out someone, which could cause serious harm.

Collard ‘very genuine’ in inclusion training

The AFL updated tribunal rules last year to exclude player character references, or “the good bloke” clause, after it was seen being used to downgrade or overturn on-field contact or rough conduct suspensions.

However this year, Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury’s had a one-match suspension for a bump downgraded to a fine after his exemplary record was taken into account.

In Collard’s case, his inclusion training came into St Kilda’s argument against the slur.

The Saints called Hayley Conway, CEO of Pride Cup, as a witness in the hearing. She helped deliver Collard’s Pride in Sport training — a requirement handed down by the AFL after he was found to have said the homophobic slur in 2024.

Conway said the Pride Cup inclusion education sessions involved making sure participants had a good sense of who LGBTQIA+ people were, and they used true-life stories and case studies on the impact of homophobic and transphobic language on people who were looking to be part of the game.

“Most of the time homophobia is actually a case of not knowing better within the culture … And we’ve heard that a lot, particularly in AFL, that this is language used to criticise performance at all levels of the game and through pathways,” Conway told ABC Sport.

Conway said Collard, who is a Noongar and Yamatji man, approached the training in a “very genuine” way and was very engaged throughout it.

“He also connected it to his own personal experiences of racism, so I do think he understood the gravity and really understood just how harmful those words could be,” Conway said.

Conway added that LGBTQIA+ discrimination was not unique to AFL, but rather it was present in all forms of sport in Australia, and addressing it was not “about undertaking high-profile sanctions alone” but making sure leagues and governing bodies were “actually investing in the things that prevent the harm from occurring” as a collective.

“I think it’s very important that consequences are not solely focused on the individual when it is a collective cultural and society-wide challenge,” she said.

In a brief statement, the AFL said: “The AFL has no tolerance for the use of homophobic language in our game and its expectations have been made extremely clear to all of our players, including by education that all AFL and VFL players receive.”

A hearing is yet to take place to determine the sanction, with the AFL seeking a 10-match suspension.

You’d imagine many players, coaches and clubs will take into consideration just how all this has played out when weighing up their options when the next case arises.