The AFL has reportedly warned Geelong to rein in polarising star midfielder Bailey Smith or face the consequences, fed up with the All-Australian\u2019s social media antics.<\/p>\n
Smith has constantly made headlines throughout the year for poor behaviour, including flipping the bird at fans, insinuating he uses Cocaine and making vulgar comments on social media, often directed at journalists.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Geelong\u2019s long-running Mad Monday traditions were indefinitely called off after an incident involving Smith.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Winger Max Holmes attended the celebrations dressed as renowned AFL reporter Caroline Wilson, with Smith using Instagram, boasting 420,000 followers, to take a vulgar potshot at the veteran news breaker.<\/p>\n The AFL is reportedly fed up with Smith\u2019s actions despite not sanctioning his latest outburst, even after he took aim a second time at reporter Mark Robinson when he defended Wilson and called the Cats\u2019 ball-winner\u2019s comments \u201cdisgusting\u201d.<\/p>\n He was also caught in controversy on Instagram in May when he responded to a message asking if he would be having \u201cnose beers\u201d any time soon with: \u201cNa bro, after the flag maybe tho\u201d.<\/p>\n The incident prompted a home visit from league chief Andrew Dillon, but Smith was only given a warning.<\/p>\n It is believed the AFL wrote directly to Geelong chief Steve Hocking directly about Smith\u2019s online behaviour in a bid to curb the behaviour ahead of next season.<\/p>\n Smith had to apologise for verbally abusing a photographer during a training session after their qualifying final and was fined $1000 during Gather Round for giving the finger to fans.<\/p>\n The popular midfielder starred in his first year at the Cattery, earning an All-Australian, where he revealed his mental health battle while rehabbing an ACL tear suffered at the Western Bulldogs saw him seek professional treatment at a \u201cpsych ward\u201d.<\/p>\n He spent four weeks at the facility ahead of his off-season move to the Cats.<\/p>\n Smith is not the only one facing criticism for using social media to attack journalists, with new Giants recruit Clayton Oliver continuing his feud with AFL reporters Mitch Cleary and Tom Morris.<\/p>\n His latest attack prompted Kane Cornes to suggest Greater Western Sydney would already have \u201cbuyer\u2019s remorse\u201d after Melbourne did everything they could to offload the midfielder during the trade period.<\/p>\n \u201cHow much buyer\u2019s remorse do the Giants have? A fair bit, I reckon,\u201d Cornes said on SEN.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t me defending the media at all, because the media has to be accountable.<\/p>\n \u201cClayton has been held to account for how he\u2019s carried himself to the point the club sacked him. He was pulled in by a great, told to pack his bags, and he was shipped off.<\/p>\n \u201cFor him to go down this path, he\u2019s incredibly stupid for doing this.<\/p>\n \u201cHe won\u2019t win a war against the media, he just won\u2019t. Whilst the Giants feel like they have a good player and they got him cheap, this is not without risk.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m Adam Kingsley (chief executive), Dave Matthews or (list boss) Jason McCartney, I don\u2019t like this. Once you become a distraction for your teammates and you make it about yourself and you put yourself in the headlines, it\u2019s a form of selfishness that you\u2019re putting yourself above the team.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a warning for the Giants they will have to rein this guy in. I think it\u2019s highly embarrassing. He\u2019s not going to win this, it\u2019s na\u00efve, it\u2019s stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL has reportedly warned Geelong to rein in polarising star midfielder Bailey Smith or face the consequences,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-226852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226852","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=226852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}