AFL Homophobia Shame: Another Player Suspended, But is Anything Changing?

Well, it’s happened again…. Homophobia in the AFL has been called out AGAIN after St.Kilda player Lance Collard was suspended for six matches after he used a homophobic slur during the Sandringham v Williamstown VFL game over the past weekend.

The incidents occurred just one week after his own club St.Kilda conducted the only AFL Pride match that they have each year against Sydney.

Collard’s suspension is the largest handed down for homophobic abuse this season after two players and a coach had already been sanctioned by the AFL.

So that’s four instances, that have been reported, of homophobic abuse by a professional associated with the country’s premiere sporting competition and what do we get from the AFL powers? The same blank words as every other time.

“There is no excuse for using the language that Collard used on the weekend. Everyone understands it is totally unacceptable in any setting, ever,” AFL General Counsel Stephen Meade said.

“The AFL is very clear that homophobia has no place in our game, nor in society. We want everyone to feel safe playing in our game and Collard’s behaviour does not help this.

“As a code, we will continue to work together to improve our game as a safe and inclusive environment for all.”

I could paste the AFL quotes from each of the previous three events and you would find it hard to notice any difference. Just rinse and repeat from the AFL without anything tangible changing except the homophobia punishment slightly getting increased.

“It is clear that the approach of dealing harsher suspensions to players is not working.” – AFLPA Acting CEO Regan Bunny.

To her credit, AFL Players’ Association acting CEO Regan Bunny has come out questioning the AFL’s perceived lack of action in this space suggesting the current approach is not working.

“We have repeatedly called for greater transparency and consistency in relation to how the AFL sanctions players and have expressed our concerns that this work has not further progressed,” AFLPA Acting CEO Regan Bunny said.

“With multiple instances of homophobia occurring this season, the industry must work to consider the drivers of this behaviour and prioritise delivery of player education to raise awareness and understanding of homophobia and its impacts.

“It is clear that the approach of dealing harsher suspensions to players is not working.”

As with the other three AFL homophobes, they have directed Collard to attend appropriate Pride in Sport training as approved by the AFL.

National Program Manager from Pride in Sport Beau Newell spoke with Gay Nation before the latest indiscretion and confirmed all previous actions were followed up by Pride in Sport.

“Those three incidences in the AFL this year, we were absolutely the ones to facilitate those education sessions,” Newell said to Gay Nation.

“One thing which I think is really important to point out for us is that we’ve known for a long time that, you know, once and done education with one individual is not effective.

“When organisations started working in this space a decade ago, there were examples of people going in and doing an education session just one-on-one with an athlete and the athlete knew that they were there because they did the wrong thing and they didn’t learn anything from it and in most cases, those examples were a waste of time.

“Because of the relationship we have with the AFL, we strongly advocated for a group or a team approach so for each of those three incidences, we actually had cohorts from both the playing cohort, coaching staff and even office staff of those respective clubs all do the education together in one go.”

Newell suggested that the group approach allowed the participants not just to deal with the issue at hand but have education broadly about concerns of LGBTQ+ inclusion across all sports.

“It also allowed the organisation as well to step up and acknowledge that even if one person is saying the wrong thing it’s being accepted that there’s a systemic issue. To assume that we can fix that by doing one-on-one education with one person is ignorant,” Newell explained.

“For each of those three instances, from what I can share, we went to those clubs in person, we sat down with the individuals as a part of the sanction as well as their coaches and CEOs of each of those organisations as well.”

Newell said the education to the team is conducted across a two-hour session.

“We’ve got two hours where we can sit down and go into a lot of detail with all of these individuals. In each circumstance, there were more than 40 people that participated in those group training sessions.

“It was still a really promising and positive step that each of those clubs made said we recognise that this is a much bigger issue, so we’re going to have everyone get educated and not just that one individual, which I think was really good.”

It is great to hear that education sessions are conducted after an incident, but as the AFLPA said, how does this lead to actual change in the sport?

GWS Giants player Tom Green explained to Gay Nation earlier this year that they undertake yearly education regarding vilification and the effects of such behaviour but it appears there needs to be more.

Are things changing…it appears not…yet.

Last Updated on Jul 18, 2024