Tom Morris

The punishment's handed to Zach Butters, who's copped a $1,500 fine as Port Adelaide...

potentially appeal that.

We'll find out maybe later this morning, certainly by this afternoon.

And Lance Collard, we knew last week that he was guilty of using a homophobic slur in a VFL match three weeks ago.

And then yesterday it was confirmed that he had received a nine-week suspension.

from playing football, two of those weeks suspended for the 2026 and 2027 seasons, meaning that he will not miss anything more than seven weeks unless he offends again.

Both players protested their innocence, and in both cases, the tribunal suggested that they were guilty.

and then have handed down their verdicts.

We're talking to AFL Players Association boss, James Gallagher, who's been very generous with his time.

The Lance Collard verdict, we've separated these two because even though they've come within an hour or two of each other, they are very different cases.

How do you read what's played out with Lance Collard and St Kilda and the Frankston Dolphins?

Yeah, you're right, Tom.

They're very different.

I think there's no doubt from our point of view, you know, we've been really clear that the game, we need to rid the game of homophobia.

It's as simple as that.

And we've made some commitments around equality, inclusion and safety in the most recent CBA.

We've really started to break through with some of that work with the AFL and establishing that committee in recent times.

We're completely committed to that.

And there's, you know, I just want that to be very clear.

But what we've seen again is a process that ultimately has caused