St Kilda’s Lance Collard has been banned for seven weeks over his anti-gay slur, with the AFL tribunal noting a longer suspension could have had a “crushing” effect on the young forward’s career.<\/p>\n
The penalty, which includes a further two-week ban suspended until the end of the 2027 season, was announced at a sanctions hearing on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n
2 Related<\/p>\n
It comes after the tribunal last Friday upheld a charge of “conduct unbecoming” against Collard, who had denied allegations he called a Frankston opponent a “f***ing faggot” in a VFL match last month.<\/p>\n
Collard, who was also banned for six matches when he pleaded guilty to using the same anti-gay slur in 2024, was adamant he did not use it this time.<\/p>\n
Instead, the 21-year-old insisted he said: “Come here, maggot”, to Frankston player Darby Hipwell.<\/p>\n
But the tribunal was not convinced.<\/p>\n
In submissions on Tuesday, AFL representative Andrew Woods SC argued there needed to be an increased penalty for repeat offending and proposed a 10-week ban.<\/p>\n
St Kilda’s Lance Collard.\u00a0Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n
“There should be an increased sanction by matches, rather than by way of a fine, to what happened last time,” Woods said.<\/p>\n
St Kilda’s representative Michael Borsky KC urged the tribunal to “show some mercy” to Collard, noting the player’s difficult upbringing and the possible effect a 10-week ban could have on his career and life as a whole.<\/p>\n
Borsky suggested such a penalty would be “unfairly punitive”, instead calling for a “substantial fine”, or at most a four-week ban.<\/p>\n
He also said the AFL Players’ Association, via a letter submitted to the tribunal, had described a 10-week ban as “disproportionate and one that could risk constituting an unreasonable restraint of trade”.<\/p>\n
“It would, we submit, be potentially career-ending for this young man,” Borsky said.<\/p>\n
“You heard that he has only one year left on his contract and he has … been in and out of the AFL team, as distinct from the VFL team.<\/p>\n
“And so, to be perfectly frank, this is one of those sliding door moments that could set Lance Collard back on the wrong path and ruin his life.”<\/p>\n
STAY IN THE KNOW WITH ESPN![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/r1589538_608x342_16-9.png\")
<\/p>\n
Stay across all the big sports news — sign up to our weekly newsletters here!<\/p>\n
SUBSCRIBE<\/p>\n
In delivering its verdict, the tribunal said Collard’s anti-gay slur was “serious” and declared the use of such language “harmful and entirely unacceptable”.<\/p>\n
The tribunal also took into account it was Collard’s second offence and he expressed no remorse by contesting the charge on this occasion.<\/p>\n
“We do not make it part of this sanction, but we strongly urge Collard to resume the awareness training that he undertook in 2024,” the tribunal said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not clear on the evidence how many sessions Collard attended, or over what period, but it is likely that that ongoing training over a period of time would be beneficial, particularly in respect to a person who has offended again.”<\/p>\n
The tribunal also noted Collard’s use of the anti-gay slur did not appear premeditated and agreed with Borsky a 10-week ban could have effectively ended the player’s career.<\/p>\n
“A sanction that is excessive may be crushing in a sense that it could seriously impact or even end Collard’s VFL\/AFL career,” the tribunal said.<\/p>\n
Collard is also serving a two-match ban stemming from a high hit on an opponent in the same VFL match last month.<\/p>\n
His fresh seven-week suspension will start after his striking ban is completed, meaning he won’t play again at any level until at least June.<\/p>\n
Collard has played 15 AFL games for St Kilda since being drafted in 2023 and is contracted until the end of 2027.<\/p>\n
Lifeline 13 11 14<\/p>\n
Fullstop Australia 1800 385 578<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda’s Lance Collard has been banned for seven weeks over his anti-gay slur, with the AFL tribunal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-606426","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\/606426","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=606426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}