{"id":80699,"date":"2025-08-19T19:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/80699\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T19:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:53:08","slug":"taylor-walker-speaks-out-on-very-touchy-izak-rankine-situation-as-afl-ban-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/80699\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Walker speaks out on \u2018very touchy\u2019 Izak Rankine situation as AFL ban looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide veteran Taylor Walker says teammate Izak Rankine will \u201caccept whatever comes his way\u201d when the AFL<\/a> wraps up its investigation into his alleged homophobic slur.<\/p>\n

Rankine is in line to miss the entire finals series in what would be a significant blow to the Crows\u2019 premiership hopes.<\/p>\n

The situation comes four years after Walker copped a six-game ban for a racial remark towards a North Adelaide player at a SANFL game, with the ex-skipper well aware of the impact of Rankine\u2019s incident.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

The pair spoke on the phone on Monday night after Rankine stayed home from the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very remorseful and he understands that he\u2019s made a mistake,\u201d Walker told Triple M Adelaide on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll accept whatever comes his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hasn\u2019t been outside. He had a full day of investigation with the AFL yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t comment on (a sanction). What I can comment on is that our footy club is a very positive and supportive environment and we will support Ranks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever we don\u2019t agree with what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker referenced his own experience in declaring there was no excuse for crossing a line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re a very good player opposition team players try and put you off your game and Ranks has had to deal with that for a period of time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, I do not sit here and say that I agree with what happened with Ranks. I don\u2019t accept that and he\u2019s made a mistake and he\u2019ll get a sanction for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he gets antagonised week in, week out. Things get said to him that probably shouldn\u2019t. Unfortunately that\u2019s the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you start getting going down that line, whether it be family, the colour of your skin \u2014 I\u2019ve obviously been on the other side of that \u2014 whether it be what sexuality you find yourself with, I think you\u2019re treading on thin ice when you go down that path.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of fun trying to put your team\u2019s opposition off, but you\u2019ve got to be super, super critical and understanding of who they are, their background and their journey. It\u2019s a very, very touchy subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ladder-leading Crows have at least three games left this season \u2014 this week\u2019s Round 24 clash with North Melbourne and two home finals \u2014 but could still play up to five.<\/p>\n

A five-game ban for Rankine would be in line with recent suspensions for homophobic slurs.<\/p>\n

The league initially came down hard and warned penalties would continue to increase.<\/p>\n

But they have since said each case would be assessed individually and \u201cdoes not consider that it is bound by the level of sanctions that it has previously imposed for similar incidents\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last year, Port Adelaide\u2019s Jeremy Finlayson served a three-game ban before Gold Coast\u2019s Wil Powell later copped five matches and St Kilda\u2019s Lance Collard was banned for six.<\/p>\n

In July this year, West Coast\u2019s Jack Graham was banned for four games after he self-reported a comment made to a GWS opponent while Sydney\u2019s Riak Andrew received a five-match ban.<\/p>\n

Rankine has kicked 31 goals for Adelaide this year and will be missed on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think they can win the premiership,\u201d Nick Riewoldt said on Channel 7\u2019s The Agenda Setters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen clubs win premierships (without star players) \u2014 I think back to West Coast when they won it without Nic Naitanui and Andrew Gaff \u2014 it can be done.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were cruising, you were absolutely cruising. And he\u2019s the sort of player we\u2019re all desperate to watch in September.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ross Lyon makes immediate admission over Nasiah\u2019s short two-year deal<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

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Bobby Hill situation escalates as family and friends \u2018really worried\u2019<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide veteran Taylor Walker says teammate Izak Rankine will \u201caccept whatever comes his way\u201d when the AFL wraps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9126,638,43,44,588,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-80699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-adelaide-crows","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80699","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=80699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}