The AFL Players’ Association has issued the following statement attributed to AFLPA CEO, Paul Marsh: 

The AFLPA acknowledges that the conduct of the sanctioned GWS Giants players is unacceptable and raises important matters of respect, inclusion and safety. These matters are critical to the AFLPA and the wider playing group. Our thoughts and support are with the Giants AFLW players and the broader AFLW community who we know are hurting, and any other people impacted by this issue.   

This issue has raised various concerns from an AFLPA perspective, but also opportunities for the broader AFL industry.   

The AFLPA provided a detailed submission to the AFL on this matter, and whilst we acknowledged the appropriateness of sanctions for these players, we raised concerns with the AFL’s commitment to cultural change within the industry, the process undertaken by the AFL, the proportionality and consistency of their sanctioning, the lack of a sanctioning framework despite repeatedly raising this with the AFL, and an inconsistent approach to how player leaders have been dealt with as compared to the broader club leaders. 

As an industry, we have had too many cultural issues and we have not worked hard enough to set and role model the standards expected. This does not excuse individual choices and decisions but they are not made in a vacuum. For many years, the industry has walked past this type of behaviour and accepted it as a part of footy culture, and this is the culture that we all are now responsible for.  We include players, clubs, the AFL and the AFLPA in this.   

For more than 12 months, the AFLPA has been trying to work with the AFL to establish a joint committee, as agreed in last year’s CBA, inclusive of players, experts and industry people to address these issues proactively and improve our industry. This is yet to happen and until we get serious about changing our culture, the industry will continue to send mixed messages that will let our fans, our players and our community down. Individual accountability is important but so is leadership that prioritises prevention, understanding and role modelling. 

A core element of the AFLPA’s role is to protect the rights of our players, and this includes upholding the agreements within the CBA and the various codes and policies. On this basis, we have serious concerns with the way the AFL has conducted their process around this issue. They sought to interview players without independent support, did not make relevant materials available to players as part of the interview process, and imposed unreasonable timeframes on players to respond to their proposed sanctions. This process lacked procedural fairness, and procedural fairness is critical to ensuring integrity and confidence in AFL processes. 

With respect to the proposed sanctions, we believed these were disproportionate, and again made without reference to any sanctioning framework. We note the AFL revised some of the sanctions in response to ours and other submissions. 

The opportunity remains to develop a consistent sanctioning framework through a revised Code of Conduct that was also agreed as part of last year’s CBA. This work is still to be finalised. 

The AFL industry has an opportunity to learn and improve from this and the various other issues we have dealt with in recent years. It will, however, take strong leadership, genuine collaboration across the industry, accountability, and ongoing reflection on our progress.