Four players from the VAFA have been handed suspensions, described by the club’s former women’s captain as “extremely lenient”, for wearing distasteful costumes at a post-season event.
Images posted on social media showed two players, including the senior club captain, dressed as a St Kilda player and the ‘St Kilda schoolgirl’ – referencing the 2010 scandal when two Saints players were accused to have slept with a 17-year-old.
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Another showed a player dressed in full-body blackface with a large penis attached to his crotch, next to another player in a ‘Willy Man’ superhero costume.
According to the ABC, all four pled guilty with the two players who posted the photos online given three-match suspensions while the other two players received two-game bans, along with being stood down from leadership positions and forced to complete education sessions along with the men’s playing and coaching group.
Box Hill North will also complete a whole club workshop run by Relationships Australia.
“The VAFA remains committed to upholding its values of respect, inclusion, community and integrity, and to educating all members in support of these principles,” a VAFA statement said.
The incident was brought to the club’s attention by the former captain of their women’s team.
Genna Krienke told the ABC the club took no action for four months and only began to investigate once the media inquired about the behaviour.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised that it’s just a slap on the wrist,” Krienke said.
“The players are not going to learn from this at all, other clubs are not going to learn from this either, because they’ve seen that the punishment is just one to three weeks of sitting out.”
Krienke has since left the club.
When the post-season event was initially reported, Box Hill North said in a statement it “sincerely apologises for any offence caused following the players’ end-of-season gathering.
“Certain costumes and associated social media posts were inappropriate and do not reflect our values or the inclusive environment we strive to provide.
“To be clear, the club strongly condemns this behaviour and is taking the matter extremely seriously.”
The ABC report cited one source which claimed players told investigators they had been abused on social media because of the photos, which was a factor in the lengths of the suspensions.
In late 2024, the AFL sanctioned 13 GWS players for their roles in a post-season dress-ups event.
Leaders were sanctioned for not stopping the behaviour with costumes including Jarryd Hayne and a taxi driver with a blow-up doll, the twin towers on September 11, and a scene from the movie Django Unchained “characterising slavery”.
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