The two Richmond players arrested after a late-night altercation outside a strip club on the Gold Coast have been handed 10-match suspensions and will be sent home from the club’s base in Queensland for breaching the league’s strict Covid protocols.
After a brief investigation on Friday, the AFL moved quickly to banish Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones from the Tigers’ biosecure bubble on the Gold Coast for what the league described as their “irresponsible” and “disrespectful” actions.
The club has been fined $100,000 for the breach – $75,000 for this offence, which the players will pay, and a further $25,000 that was the suspended amount from a previous breach. $100,000 will be included in Richmond’s 2021 soft cap.
“It is a privilege to be able to continue our competition, and with that privilege comes responsibility,” AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon said. “The actions of the players are not only irresponsible but disrespectful to the competition and everyone associated with it.
“There is simply no excuse for this breach. The two players knew the rules and chose to ignore them, putting the safety of everyone at risk. The behaviour of the players is not what we expect, regardless of whether any protocols are in place or not.”
The intoxicated players both received facial injuries in the incident, said Queensland police, who were called to a disturbance outside the Hollywood Showgirls venue at Surfers Paradise early Friday morning.
The players had taken an Uber to a “non-approved Gold Coast venue”, the AFL said, outside which the incident took place. Stack was detained by police and released a short time after. The police investigation is ongoing.
“With a three-day break in their training program, the players had been drinking alcohol at a club and AFL-sanctioned event at the hub,” a Tigers statement said. “The pair chose to continue drinking at the completion of the function in their rooms before going out and attending a venue.”
Players, their families and staff from many clubs have been moved into bubbles in Queensland to complete the season away from Victoria, with the grand final to be played in Brisbane – the first time the premiership decider has been played outside Melbourne.
Stack and Coleman-Jones are listed as injured and neither are in the same quarantine hub as many others who have recently arrived on the Gold Coast, given they had already undertaken a 14-day quarantine in July.
Both players were put into isolation upon returning to Richmond’s hub on Friday morning. Neither will play again this season and, given the Tigers have a bye in round 16 and only two more regular season games plus finals remain, will serve most of their bans next season.
The incident comes as a major embarrassment to the AFL, which has done everything within its power to keep the season alive in the face of the coronavirus outbreak.
The AFL’s strict Covid-19 protocols preclude players in bubbles from visiting bars, clubs and restaurants or other enclosed public spaces.
Richmond have already fallen foul of the league’s rules in July when the club was fined $45,000 – $25,000 of it suspended – after captain Trent Cotchin’s wife, Brooke, breached protocols on a visit to a beauty salon.
The sanctions come after Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was celebrating the AFL’s decision to take the grand final to her state just two days ago, called for tough penalties.
“AFL players caught breaking Covid rules should be sent home,” Palaszczuk tweeted on Friday. “Queensland won’t tolerate it. I know the AFL takes these issues seriously and will take appropriate action.”
Richmond’s CEO, Brendon Gale, spoke of his disappointment at the players’ decisions and also admitted his club had “got some things wrong in recent months”.
“Richmond – like all clubs – has a responsibility to the game, and the broader AFL community, to observe the Covid-19 protocols that the AFL has put in place,” he said. “Clearly Callum and Sydney did not meet that responsibility this week, and we are incredibly disappointed.
“Their decision to attend a venue while outside the hub was also completely unacceptable, and in no way aligns with what we stand for as a club. They have let down themselves, teammates, our members and supporters, our partners and the entire AFL industry.”
