\n<\/p>\n
West Coast player Jack Graham has been suspended for four matches and will undertake an education program after using a \u201chighly offensive\u201d homophobic slur during an AFL match against GWS Giants.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old used the offensive term towards a Giants opponent during their round 17 clash and later self-reported the incident to the Eagles.<\/p>\n
The club passed the report to the AFL on Friday morning with the AFL Integrity Unit undertaking an immediate investigation and moving quickly to sanction Graham who has been withdrawn from the West Coast side to face Port Adelaide on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cGraham used a highly offensive homophobic slur against a GWS Giants opponent, which demeans and denigrates persons regardless of their sexuality,\u201d the AFL said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The former Richmond player will not be eligible to play for West Coast or at any level of football for the next four weeks and will also undertake Pride in Sport education.<\/p>\n
All AFL and AFLW Players and officials receive yearly education regarding vilification and the impact of such behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone understands the word he used is both hurtful and totally unacceptable in any setting, ever,\u201d Tony Keane, AFL head of integrity and security, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe AFL is very clear that homophobia has no place in our game, nor in the community. We have come a long way as a code, but this incident demonstrates there is so much more to be done, and we will continue to work together to improve our game as a safe and inclusive environment for all.<\/p>\n
The AFL took into account Graham\u2019s self-reporting of the incident, along with his private apology to the unnamed Giants player and contrition when considering its sanctions.<\/p>\n
Graham also rang AFL chief executive, Andrew Dillion, directly to apologise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very remorseful for the word I used and know such language has no place in our community or our game,\u201d Graham said. \u201cI have offered my unreserved apology to the Giants player and Greater Western Sydney and would also like to publicly apologise for my comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I said does not reflect my values or our club values. I made a mistake and need to be better and will prove that through my actions going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sign up to From the Pocket: AFL Weekly<\/span><\/p>\n Jonathan Horn brings expert analysis on the week’s biggest AFL stories<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Graham is playing his first season with the Eagles after lining up in 131 matches and winning two premierships with the Tigers.<\/p>\n West Coast said that Graham had admitted to using a homophobic slur and accepted the sanctions handed down by the AFL.<\/p>\n \u201cThe word Jack used is completely unacceptable and does not align with societal and club values,\u201d West Coast chief executive, Don Pyke, said.<\/p>\n \u201cJack understands the harmful effects comments like these can have on others and he has been honest in addressing this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" West Coast player Jack Graham has been suspended for four matches and will undertake an education program after using a \u201chighly offensive\u201d homophobic slur during an AFL match against GWS Giants. The 27-year-old used the offensive term towards a Giants opponent during their round 17 clash and later self-reported the incident to the Eagles. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[3709,493,3710,3711,3713,1676,3712,3461,3100,2187],"class_list":{"0":"post-10654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-bans","10":"tag-coast","11":"tag-graham","12":"tag-homophobic","13":"tag-jack","14":"tag-matches","15":"tag-player","16":"tag-slur","17":"tag-west"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}