{"id":570212,"date":"2026-03-28T15:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T15:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570212\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T15:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T15:26:10","slug":"saint-under-investigation-for-alleged-homophobic-slur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570212\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint under investigation for alleged homophobic slur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__summary\">\n                Lance Collard is under investigation for an alleged incident in the VFL on Friday night\n            <\/p>\n<p>                                Lance Collard in action during the match between Waalitj Marawar (West Coast) and Euro-Yroke (St Kilda) at Optus Stadium in round 10, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n<p>ST KILDA forward Lance Collard is under investigation for the alleged use of a homophobic slur in the VFL on Friday night, less than two years after copping a six-game ban for a homophobic slur.<\/p>\n<p>AFL.com.au&#8217;s Callum Twomey has reported Collard is under investigation following the Saints&#8217; loss to Frankston.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">St Kilda\u2019s Lance Collard is under AFL investigation for an alleged homophobic slur in the VFL on Friday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe VFL is aware of an incident during Friday night\u2019s match between Frankston and St Kilda and is investigating the matter\u201d &#8211; from the League.<\/p>\n<p>St Kilda statement below: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BSOdvMj4U7\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/BSOdvMj4U7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Callum Twomey (@CalTwomey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CalTwomey\/status\/2037785412643725792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 28, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>In July 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afl.com.au\/news\/1174025\/st-kilda-saints-player-lance-collard-banned-for-six-games-after-using-homophobic-slur-in-vfl-match\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Collard was banned for six games for using homophobic slurs against his opponents during a VFL game<\/a>. He was required to undergo a Pride in Sport education program as part of his punishment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;St Kilda Football Club is aware of an alleged incident involving one of its players during last night&#8217;s VFL match against Frankston,&#8221; the Saints said in a statement on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The club takes matters of this nature extremely seriously and is working closely with the AFL Integrity Unit as it conducts its investigation into the matter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While this process is underway, it would be inappropriate for the club to comment further.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The AFL has confirmed it is investigating the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>Collard was already set to come under scrutiny for a swinging arm that caught a Frankston player high during the match, leading to a brawl between players from both sides.<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old had 11 disposals and four tackles in his side&#8217;s eight-point loss to the Dolphins, kicking three behinds.<\/p>\n<p>The No.28 pick in the 2023 draft, Collard has played 15 senior games for the Saints.<\/p>\n<p>He is contracted until the end of 2027.<\/p>\n<p>In the past two years, six AFL-listed players &#8211; Collard, Jeremy Finlayson, Wil Powell, Jack Graham, Riak Andrew and Izak Rankine &#8211; have been suspended for using a homophobic slur in a game.<\/p>\n<p>After the 2024 incident, that Saints labelled Collard&#8217;s comments &#8220;totally unacceptable&#8221; while the player apologised for his behaviour.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am incredibly remorseful for my comments and any hurt they may have caused,&#8221; Collard said in a statement at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m disappointed in myself and fully accept the consequences for my behaviour.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I did doesn&#8217;t represent my values, or the values of the club. I have apologised to the Williamstown players who were impacted by my behaviour, and unreservedly reiterate that apology to anyone else my conduct affected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lance Collard is under investigation for an alleged incident in the VFL on Friday night Lance Collard in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-570212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-text","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570212","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=570212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}