took less than 20 minutes to rule they were right<\/a>.<\/p>\nAnd while they disagreed with the Saints\u2019 first submission that Collard should merely be given a hefty financial sanction, they instead handed down a four-week ban (two weeks suspended until the end of 2027).<\/p>\n
That is despite Collard being given a six-week suspension in 2024 for his first use of the word, also during a VFL game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the club is disappointed the charge was upheld, it welcomes the reduction in sanction and thanks the Appeals Board for their time and consideration on the matter,\u201d the Saints said on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club\u2019s legal team, led by Michael Borsky KC, successfully argued that the original penalty was manifestly excessive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club remains focused on supporting Lance throughout what has been a challenging period and asks for his privacy as he makes his return to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the reduction in sanction, St Kilda remains disappointed with how the matter was assessed and believes greater consistency and clarity in the AFL\u2019s Tribunal process is important moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also acknowledge the impact this prolonged and public matter has had on members of the LGBTQIA+ and First Nations communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The panel found the previous sanction would be \u201ccrippling\u201d because \u201cthere was evidence before the Tribunal in the sanction in both hearings that a penalty of this extent would finish him off as a player of professional football\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lance Collard of the Saints celebrates a goal during the round four AFL match between Port Adelaide Power and St Kilda Saints at Adelaide Oval, on April 06, 2025, in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Mark Brake\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Will Houghton KC said in the board\u2019s reasons: \u201cWe observe that football is a hard game. It is highly competitive, particularly at its higher levels. It is commonplace that players can employ language from time to time which is racist, sexist or homophobic whilst on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe observe that it\u2019s to the credit of the AFL and the Tribunal that its efforts to eliminate these comments appear to be succeeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, that cannot be at the price of imposing what this board considers to be a crippling penalty on the appellant of this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reacting immediately after the decision was handed down, AFL 360 host Whateley appeared stunned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the remit of the Appeal Board to do that. That is a gross overreach on what that panel\u2019s role is,\u201d he said on SEN.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo dismiss the appeal but then reduce the sentence from seven to two \u2026 still guilty, but two weeks? That doesn\u2019t line up with anything that the AFL has done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis feels outside the remit of the Appeal Board, frankly, in the way it has operated traditionally. That\u2019s a very odd verdict – it\u2019s been an incredibly difficult space, and I haven\u2019t envied anyone\u2019s involvement in it from beginning to end, but that is incredibly unsatisfactory.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThat makes no sense whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley added: \u201cI can\u2019t come to terms with the decision there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Appeal Board gave several reasons for the decision, including:<\/p>\n
– The previous incident being more serious, involving Collard using the word multiple times while being warned by opponents he should not be saying it;<\/p>\n
– His age and difficult background;<\/p>\n
– The player he used the slur against was not offended by it personally;<\/p>\n
– and \u201che had at that time struck an opposing player, given away a free kick and had been jostled, roughed up and verbally challenged by a number of his opponents\u201d.<\/p>\n
With Collard also given a two-week ban for striking, in an incident immediately preceding and effectively causing the incident where he used the slur, he will serve a total of four weeks away from footy before being eligible to return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran AFL journalist Gerard Whateley says the Appeal Board slashing Lance Collard\u2019s ban for using a homophobic slur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-625631","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625631","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=625631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776909012_441_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n