In an AFL first, St Kilda’s Lance Collard has faced a disciplinary tribunal hearing for conduct unbecoming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The marathon hearing took place last Thursday, but the tribunal panel did not reach a determination before the 5pm deadline, and released its decision on Friday evening.<\/p>\n
The AFL had said in the hearing it would seek a 10-week suspension for Collard if the charge was upheld.<\/p>\n
Collard insisted he said, “Come here, maggot”, to Frankston player Darby Hipwell.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/56677f54c2a0b5ed38e1a4e208c10649.jpeg\")
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St Kilda coach Ross Lyon says Collard is “in a holding pattern” awaiting a resolution to the case. (AAP: Joel Carrett)<\/p>\n
But Hipwell was adamant that was not the case.<\/p>\n
“He had his head up against my ear and he said the words to me, ‘Darby, you ‘f***ing f*****’,” Hipwell said.<\/p>\n
The allegation was supported by Hipwell’s teammate Bailey Lambert.<\/p>\n
ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n Hipwell and Collard previously played together with VFL club Sandringham when that side was St Kilda’s state-league affiliate.<\/p>\n Collard has played 15 AFL games, after being taken by the Saints in the 2023 draft.<\/p>\n He is already serving a two-match ban stemming from a high hit on an opponent in the same VFL match in which he allegedly uttered the homophobic slur.<\/p>\n The Saints last week said they would continue to support Collard, who is contracted until the end of 2027, through the process.<\/p>\n “I haven’t had a conversation. He’s in a holding pattern,” coach Ross Lyon said of Collard after St Kilda’s 12.9 (81) to 9.13 (67) away win over Port Adelaide on Sunday night.<\/p>\n Helplines:Lifeline<\/a> (24-hour crisis line): 131 114Full Stop Australia<\/a>: 1800 385 578<\/p>\n AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a potential 10-week suspension hanging over his head, St Kilda forward Lance Collard will have his sanction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,14260,63493,12415,40171,17653,588,85,1122],"class_list":["post-605080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-hearing","tag-homophobia","tag-lance-collard","tag-sanction","tag-slur","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605080","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=605080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}