What should the AFL do when players are linked to sexual assault investigations?
- Written by: Weekend Times
The Australian Football League (AFL) and the Sydney Swans are confronting a question Australian sport has repeatedly failed to answer clearly: what should happen when players are linked to police investigations of
alleged sexual violence, but the criminal process is incomplete – or inconclusive?
Yesterday, it was revealed several Sydney players are at the centre of a Victoria Police investigation after an alleged sexual assault at their East Melbourne hotel following a game against Essendon on Sunday evening.
The police investigation is still in its early stages and, separately, the AFL is reportedly set to suspend the players involved for bringing the game into disrepute.
The issue raises serious questions about whether athletes should be free to play during serious investigations (due to a presumption of innocence) or whether stronger action is needed.
The immediate aftermath
After news broke of the allegations, the Swans made a statement to “confirm several players were involved in an alleged incident”.
Since then, both coach Dean Cox and chief executive Matthew Pavlich expressed being “extremely disappointed”, while downplaying the incident, referring to the “situation” the players “found” themselves in.
It has been reported a complaint was made after a group of players went out drinking before inviting women back to the team hotel.
The police spoke to a number of people at the hotel, including several players. No charges have been laid at the time of writing.
Firmer action is needed
Sport forms an integral part of the Australian culture, which makes it even more important that organisations like the AFL take strong action to prevent harm and demand accountability when players or officials face serious allegations.
A presumption of innocence is fundamental to our criminal justice system, so should the players allegedly involved be allowed to play for the remainder of the season, or should the league force them to stand down?
The AFL has no firm policy here, although it could look to other leagues as guides.
The NRL provides one model. Its no-fault stand-down policy automatically removes players from competition when they are charged with certain serious offences.
Overseas, the England and Wales Cricket Board uses an interim suspension process as part of its safeguarding regulations. Major League Baseball in the United States has a mechanism to place players on leave during investigations under their Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.
What is needed?
The AFL needs to establish an independently administered interim-measures framework.
Where credible information raises a serious concern about sexual or gender-based violence, an independent body should conduct a rapid risk assessment and determine whether temporary measures are required. Options might include a no-fault stand-down on full pay or restrictions on club activities.
Decisions should be reviewable and based on clear criteria – not the profile of the player, the timing of finals, or the reputational interests of a club or the AFL.
Crucially, the sport itself should not be the investigator. Internal investigations create obvious conflicts between protecting people and protecting the brand.
Research on gender-based violence in Australian sport has found significant gaps in policies for receiving and responding to disclosures, and pathways that are difficult to navigate and often poorly equipped to provide trauma-informed, survivor-centred responses.
The broader picture
This is bigger than one club or one allegation.
Australia is already confronting a national crisis of violence against women – one in five Australian women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
Sexual violence and gender harassment do not sit outside sport’s culture: sport is one of the institutions through which ideas about masculinity, entitlement, gender and acceptable behaviour are learned and often rewarded.
Read more: Australian sport still has a gender-based violence problem. Our new guide might help tackle it
The consequences of how the Swans and the AFL respond extends beyond the people directly involved.
Every time a major sporting organisation appears to minimise an allegation, hide behind an unclear process, or prioritises a season over safety, it sends a message to women and girls about who our community values.
It also sends a message to men and boys about what institutions will tolerate.
Conversely, a fair, transparent and independent response can model something different: that sexual violence is taken seriously, that it has consequences and that authorities can support victim survivors while also following due process.
Ideally, Australia needs a national strategy for preventing and responding to gender-based violence in sport, aligned with the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children.
It should establish consistent minimum standards across sports, independent reporting and investigation pathways, oversight and auditing, data collection and direct consequences when organisations fail to act.
The AFL needs to be a leader
The AFL’s role is not to decide whether these players are guilty. But it cannot claim that merely waiting for the police investigation to be completed is an adequate safeguarding policy.
The AFL can take an active role in preventing further harm, protect the integrity of its environments, adequately support those who disclose violence, and make decisions transparently and with independent oversight.
This is good governance.
The women and girls facing abuse in this country deserve that. And men and boys deserve modelling of good behaviour and organisational practice.
Kirsty Forsdike currently receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the NSW Office of Sport. She has previously received funding from the Advanced Olympic Research Grant from the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, and the Victorian Government. She is a board member for Sports Focus, a regional sports assembly in Victoria.
Catherine Ordway is a sports integrity consultant and has previously consulted to the AFLPA (AFL Players Association) on anti-doping related research, and to FARE (Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education)
