{"id":626853,"date":"2026-04-24T01:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626853\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T01:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:10:09","slug":"afl-player-lance-collards-crippling-ban-for-allegedly-using-homophobic-slur-slashed-on-appeal-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626853\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL player Lance Collard\u2019s \u2018crippling\u2019 ban for allegedly using homophobic slur slashed on appeal | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Kilda forward Lance Collard will serve a two-week suspension over his latest homophobic slur after having his ban reduced by the AFL<\/a> appeal board.<\/p>\n

Collard was initially banned for seven weeks<\/a>, with a further two weeks suspended, after being found guilty of calling a VFL opponent a \u201cfucking faggot\u201d last month. He denied the allegation.<\/p>\n

The appeal board, chaired by Will Houghton KC, on Thursday backed the AFL disciplinary tribunal\u2019s decision that Collard was guilty of conduct unbecoming<\/a> and dismissed St Kilda\u2019s appeal against that finding.<\/p>\n

However, the board agreed with Saints lawyer Michael Borsky KC that the initial penalty was manifestly excessive.<\/p>\n

On reducing the sanction, the board declared a suspension of that length would have had a \u201ccrippling\u201d effect on the 21-year-old fringe player\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

Collard\u2019s reduced two-week ban comes with a further two weeks suspended until the end of next season, when his existing contract expires.<\/p>\n

St Kilda expressed disappointment that the charge was upheld, but welcomed the reduction in sanction.<\/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,\u201d St Kilda said in a statement on Thursday night.<\/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.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the second time in three seasons Collard has been found guilty of using homophobic language<\/a> in a VFL match.<\/p>\n

He was banned for six games in 2024 after admitting to using the same slur on-field.<\/p>\n

The appeal board said Collard\u2019s previous offending was \u201cprobably far more serious than the present offence\u201d.<\/p>\n

It noted Collard\u2019s age, Indigenous heritage and difficult background in delivering its verdict, and said Frankston player Darby Hipwell was not personally offended by the slur directed at him.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the appeal board has come to the view that the sanction imposed on player Collard by the tribunal was manifestly excessive,\u201d Houghton said.<\/p>\n

The board observed the AFL and tribunal are succeeding in their efforts to stamp out racist, sexist and homophobic language on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, that cannot be at the price of imposing what this board considers to be a crippling penalty on the appellant in this case,\u201d Houghton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe described it as crippling because there was evidence before the tribunal in both hearings that a penalty of this extent would finish him off as a player of professional football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collard admitted calling VFL opponents \u201cfaggot\u201d in 2024 but was adamant he did not utter the term this time. Instead, he insisted he said \u201cCome here, maggot\u201d to Hipwell.<\/p>\n

But the tribunal sided with Hipwell and his teammate Bailey Lambert, who both gave evidence at Collard\u2019s initial tribunal hearing on 9 April.<\/p>\n

Collard\u2019s two-week suspension for conduct unbecoming will be served cumulatively with the two-match ban he received for striking in the same VFL fixture.<\/p>\n

A late hit on Frankston\u2019s Jackson Voss sparked the melee that led to Collard\u2019s confrontation with Hipwell.<\/p>\n

The AFL considers the \u201cconduct unbecoming\u201d matter closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFL reiterates that it has no tolerance for the use of homophobic language in our game and its expectations have been made extremely clear to all of our players, including by education that all AFL and VFL players receive,\u201d the league said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The reduction of Collard\u2019s suspension brings to an end another drawn-out tribunal process after Port Adelaide\u2019s Zak Butters had his umpire-abuse charge thrown out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The AFL ultimately issued an apology over a tribunal panel member\u2019s decision to disconnect from the initial hearing then continue listening while driving.<\/p>\n

Last week, St Kilda coach Ross Lyon labelled the AFL\u2019s tribunal process a \u201cfirestorm\u201d, claiming it put unnecessary stress on the individuals involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda forward Lance Collard will serve a two-week suspension over his latest homophobic slur after having his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-626853","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\/626853","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=626853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}