{"id":595339,"date":"2026-04-09T09:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595339\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:17:09","slug":"lance-collard-to-learn-fate-over-alleged-homophobic-slur-after-marathon-afl-tribunal-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595339\/","title":{"rendered":"Lance Collard to learn fate over alleged homophobic slur after marathon AFL tribunal hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Kilda forward Lance Collard will wait to learn his fate after denying allegations he used a homophobic slur against an opponent.<\/p>\n

Collard faced an AFL disciplinary tribunal hearing on Thursday and could be suspended for 10 weeks if found guilty.<\/p>\n

During a four-hour tribunal session, Collard denied he called an opponent a “f***ing f****t” and has signed a statutory declaration to that effect.<\/p>\n

The tribunal could not reach a determination before Thursday’s deadline and will instead hand down its verdict on Friday.<\/p>\n

Frankston player Darby Hipwell alleges Collard used the phrase during an on-field melee in a VFL match last month.<\/p>\n

The allegation is supported by teammate Bailey Lambert, though umpire Sam Morgan \u2014 who was near the players during their altercation \u2014 said he did not hear Collard’s alleged comment.<\/p>\n

AFL bans Rankine for four games over homophobic slur<\/a><\/p>\n

Adelaide Crows star Izak Rankine has been suspended for four matches for using a homophobic slur against a Collingwood opponent during last weekend’s AFL match at Adelaide Oval.<\/p>\n

Collard, who was banned for six matches for using the same homophobic word in 2024<\/a>, is adamant he did not use it this time.<\/p>\n

He insisted he said, “Come here, maggot”.<\/p>\n

“I admitted it last time when I said it, but I never said it this time,” Collard said.<\/p>\n

“I signed an oath during the week about it, saying that I’m being 100 per cent honest.<\/p>\n

“Last time I stood up and admitted it and I took it and I was remorseful.”<\/p>\n

The AFL is seeking a 10-week suspension, rather than a 10-match suspension, which would be served across the AFL and VFL competitions.<\/p>\n

Collard’s lawyer, Michael Borsky KC, has also argued his client has been denied procedural fairness by being charged under the wrong rule.<\/p>\n

Hipwell and Lambert both gave evidence on Thursday and were adamant they could not have misheard Collard.<\/p>\n

“He had his head up against my ear and he said the words to me, ‘Darby, you f***ing f****t’,” Hipwell said.<\/p>\n

“I’m not sure whether he said ‘you’ or ‘you are’.”<\/p>\n

Borsky did not accuse Hipwell and Lambert of giving false evidence but suggested they had made a mistake in what they had heard.<\/p>\n

“There’s no possibility that I misheard him. I heard exactly what he said,” Hipwell said.<\/p>\n

Hipwell and Collard previously played together with VFL club Sandringham when they were St Kilda’s state league affiliate.<\/p>\n

Collard is already serving a two-match ban stemming from a high hit on an opponent in the same VFL match he allegedly used the homophobic slur.<\/p>\n

His swinging arm to the head of Jackson Voss sparked the on-field melee, which led to the altercation in question.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda forward Lance Collard will wait to learn his fate after denying allegations he used a homophobic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[290634,638,62648,64,63,55,639,17652,12415,19545,149665,85,1122,26605,290633,24342],"class_list":{"0":"post-595339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-10-weeks","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-alleged-homophobic-slur","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australian-football-league","14":"tag-australianfootballleague","15":"tag-ban","16":"tag-lance-collard","17":"tag-saints","18":"tag-sandringham","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-st-kilda","21":"tag-suspension","22":"tag-tribunal-hearing","23":"tag-vfl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595339","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=595339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}