{"id":10450,"date":"2025-07-21T08:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T08:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/10450\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T08:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T08:42:07","slug":"sydney-swans-player-riak-andrew-under-investigation-after-using-homophobic-slur-in-vfl-game-club-statement-tom-harley-what-did-he-say-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/10450\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Swans player Riak Andrew under investigation after using homophobic slur in VFL game, club statement, Tom Harley, what did he say, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL Integrity Unit have opened up an investigation on first-year Sydney player Riak Andrew, after he used a homophobic slur during last Saturday\u2019s VFL win over North Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Via a club statement released on Monday evening, the 20-year-old Swan is said to be \u201cremorseful and takes full responsibility\u201d for his actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis behaviour does not reflect the values of our club, and we take this matter very seriously,\u201d Swans chief executive Tom Harley said in the statement.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile it is disappointing, we recognise that Riak is at the beginning of his career and we will use this as an opportunity to provide support and education, to ensure Riak understands the impact of his words.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a fortnight we will be playing in the Pride Game, a match that is incredibly important to our club. We are committed to creating a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew\u2019s slur comes less than a fortnight since West Coast player Jack Graham was suspended for four weeks after self-reporting a homophobic slur<\/a> of his own.<\/p>\n

It makes him the fifth AFL player in 16 months set to be suspended for the use of a homophobic slur, with Port Adelaide\u2019s Jeremy Finlayson, Gold Coast\u2019s Wil Powell and St Kilda\u2019s Lance Collard each receiving suspensions between three and six weeks.<\/p>\n

He was taken with Pick No. 55 in last year\u2019s National Draft, and is the brother of Gold Coast Suns key defender Mac Andrew.<\/p>\n

MORE TO COME…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL Integrity Unit have opened up an investigation on first-year Sydney player Riak Andrew, after he used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,12411,2105,2485,12413,3487,12417,12415,12412,673,677,6082,701,12414,1124,85,670,7200,12410,12416],"class_list":["post-10450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-club-statement","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-homophobic-slur","tag-isaac-heeney","tag-jack-graham","tag-lance-collard","tag-matt-king","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-port-adelaide","tag-queensland","tag-receiving-suspensions","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans","tag-tom-harley","tag-wil-powell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}