GWS boss Dave Matthews has called out the lack of consistency from the AFL after Geelong players escaped sanctions over their Mad Monday antics while Giants players copped suspensions at the end of 2024 for their behaviour.
Newly installed AFL football boss Greg Swann declared on Wednesday that league officials were “not thrilled” with the costumes, antics and social media posts of several Geelong players, including Bailey Smith, at their post-season celebrations on Monday.
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Despite that, the league left Geelong officials to handle the situation.
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The Cats issued an apology and declared future post-season events “will not continue in this current form”.
“And we will take this moment to further educate our people on expectations and club and community standards,” Geelong said in a statement after being urged by the AFL to act.
Swann even declared that in future it would be more likely the AFL would leave clubs to handle similar situations and the league would only step in if required.
“You might see that change, as I said, I think these are club issues,” he said.
“We will step in if we have to, but we’ll let the clubs deal with it.”
It’s a response in stark contrast to 12 months ago when the AFL suspended six GWS players and fined seven others, including captain Toby Greene, for their conduct at an end-of-season function.
Josh Fahey copped a four-game ban, while Jake Riccardi, Joe Fonti, Toby McMullin, Harvey Thomas and Cooper Hamilton were banned for two games.
Greene and other senior Giants players Sam Taylor, Tom Green, Lachie Keeffe, Harry Perryman, Connor Idun and Lachie Whitfield were fined $5000 each.
Those penalties were handed out despite the behaviour, which included inappropriate costumes and comedy skits, happening in a private function room with no social media presence, unlike the very public display from Cats players.
It left Matthews questioning why there was no league action against Geelong.
“I have obviously been an interested observer, but this is a broader AFL issue. We need more consistency,” he told SEN ahead of the club’s best and fairest count.
“The first thing that happened this week is I was getting messages from players and staff saying, ‘So, Geelong is going to start the season with players suspended?’. That’s the difficulty.
“Credit to Geelong because they put out a statement, they said this was unacceptable, they apologised. The question could also be — is there a consequence?
“That’s not targeting Geelong in any way, it’s just that one year ago we dealt with all sorts of consequences and they dragged on for months with continued public discussion around it.
“We need a framework that the fans, the players and the clubs understand. Because at the moment there’s what’s happened, and then everybody is guessing about what happens next.”
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