The Australian Football League (AFL) and the a question Australian sport has repeatedly failed to answer clearly: what should happen when players are accused of sexual violence, but the criminal process is incomplete 鈥 or inconclusive?
On Monday, 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 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 to 鈥渃onfirm several players were involved in an alleged incident鈥.
Since then, both coach Dean Cox and chief executive Matthew Pavlich 鈥渆xtremely disappointed鈥, while downplaying the incident, referring to the 鈥渟ituation鈥 the players 鈥渇ound鈥 themselves in.
It has been reported after a group of players went out drinking before 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.
On Wednesday, the Swans suspended five players for the rest of the season for breaching club behavioural standards.
Firmer action
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 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 . Major League Baseball in the United States has a mechanism to 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 鈥 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 for receiving and responding to disclosures, and and often poorly equipped to provide .
The broader picture
This is bigger than one club or one allegation.
Australia is already confronting a of violence against women 鈥 Australian women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
Sexual : sport is one of the institutions through which ideas about masculinity, entitlement, gender and acceptable behaviour are .
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 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鈥檚 role is not to decide whether players are guilty. But it cannot claim that merely waiting for a 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.
, Principal Research Fellow and Associate Professor, La Trobe Rural Health School, and , Visiting Scholar, School of Business, CBR,
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