{"id":276896,"date":"2025-11-11T04:37:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T04:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/276896\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T04:37:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T04:37:06","slug":"aflpa-slams-afl-for-suspending-geelong-cats-tanner-bruhn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/276896\/","title":{"rendered":"AFLPA slams AFL for suspending Geelong Cats\u2019 Tanner Bruhn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL players\u2019 union has slammed the league for \u201cpremature and disproportionate\u201d action in standing down Geelong footballer Tanner Bruhn while he fought a rape charge, which was dropped on Tuesday.<\/a><\/p>\n

The league revealed on Tuesday that it had stopped Bruhn from playing at any level after learning early in 2025 that he and a co-accused had been charged with several counts of sexual assault, which they denied.<\/p>\n

\"Geelong\u2019s<\/p>\n

Geelong\u2019s Tanner Bruhn did not play a game this season.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The charges were officially withdrawn in court on Tuesday. Nothing about Bruhn\u2019s involvement, including the fact he had been stood down by the AFL, could previously be reported because of a suppression order that had been in place all year, which was lifted on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Bruhn was stood down from playing at any level of Australian football [including AFL and VFL], which remained in place until the charges were withdrawn, which formally occurred in court today,\u201d the AFL said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuppression orders preventing publication of any details in relation to this matter have previously prevented the AFL or any party making public comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AFL Players Association welcomed the withdrawal of the charges against Bruhn, and described the process as \u201clong and flawed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTanner was entitled to the presumption of innocence from the outset and throughout. It was clear to us that standing Tanner down would be premature and disproportionate,\u201d the AFLPA statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe collective bargaining agreement requires the AFL and AFLPA to resolve a code of conduct including proper processes and a sanctioning framework. This unfortunate set of circumstances is further evidence that such a framework is critical for the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain committed to this work in the best interests of the players and Australian football. As there was a suppression order in place, the AFLPA was unable to make any comment on the matter before the conclusion of today\u2019s proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL players\u2019 union has slammed the league for \u201cpremature and disproportionate\u201d action in standing down Geelong footballer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-276896","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276896","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=276896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}