Just ahead of the Western Bulldogs and Sydney clash on Thursday night, another off-Broadway story was emerging that has mystified many, if not shocked. And it was the case of Lance Collard, the St Kilda player who had been banned for nine weeks (two weeks suspended) after he was found guilty of calling an opponent a “f***ing f****t” in a VFL game last month.
St Kilda decided to appeal the ban, given it was a case of ‘he said, he said’, with Collard denying he had used the homophobic slur and instead said the word “maggot”. On Thursday night, the AFL appeal board decided the initial penalty was manifestly excessive and slashed the ban by two weeks.
Chair of the board was Will Houghton KC, and the other members were Georgina Coghlan KC and former AFL player Stephen Jurica. The reason for their decision was published in full on the AFL’s website ... and there is little doubt some of those reasons would be sitting uncomfortably with the top brass at AFL HQ right now.
Indeed, Channel 7’s AFL Kate McCarthy was in shock when she read the appeal board’s statement. The most alarming and incredulous was this: “We observe that football is a hard game. It is highly competitive, particularly at its higher levels. It is commonplace that players can employ language from time to time which is racist, sexist or homophobic whilst on the field.”
The other part of the reasoning for reducing the ban was this: “The recipient of the remark, Hipwell, was not offended by the comment.” It is a staggering, if not offensive, take, given the AFL has been trying to eradicate racist, sexist or homophobic comments from the game and recently.
McCarthy found it unfathomable. “I am genuinely speechless that this is in print ... Absolutely baffled,” she said on social media, highlighting the words “the fact the victim was not personally offended”. “It gets worse,” she added, sharing a screenshot of the statement.
Sports reporter Anna Harrington called it “grim” while veteran AFL journalist Gerard Whateley said the decision “makes no sense whatsoever”. “That’s not the remit of the appeal board to do that. That is a gross overreach on what that panel’s role is,” Whateley said on SEN. “To dismiss the appeal but then reduce the sentence from seven to two … still guilty, but two weeks? That doesn’t line up with anything that the AFL has done. This feels outside the remit of the appeal board, frankly, in the way it has operated traditionally. That’s a very odd verdict — it’s been an incredibly difficult space, and I haven’t envied anyone’s involvement in it from beginning to end, but that is incredibly unsatisfactory.”
Former Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley, who is now working in media, said: “I can’t come to terms with the decision there.” Hinkley was coach when Jeremy Finlayson was suspended for three matches in 2024 for making a homophobic slur towards an Essendon player. Last year Jack Graham (West Coast) and Izak Rankine (Adelaide) both received four-game bans for using homophobic slurs, and the year before Gold Coast’s Wil Powell copped a five-game ban for the offence. In 2024 Collard served a six-game ban for two “unprompted and highly offensive homophobic slurs” (also in the VFL) to which he admitted guilt and apologised.
The decision on Thursday brought the matter to a close almost four weeks after the incident took place in a VFL match on March 27. But St Kilda have called for greater consistency and clarity in the AFL tribunal system after a drawn-out process. “The club remains focused on supporting Lance throughout what has been a challenging period and asks for his privacy as he makes his return to play,” St Kilda said in a statement. “Despite the reduction in sanction, St Kilda remains disappointed with how the matter was assessed and believes greater consistency and clarity in the AFL’s tribunal process is important moving forward.”
