Gold Coast Suns defender Wil Powell has been handed a five-game suspension by the AFL’s Integrity Unit for directing a homophobic slur towards a Brisbane opponent during Sunday’s game.
The Suns said Powell informed the club he had made the comment during the game, and a subsequent investigation found him guilty.
This incident comes only a matter of weeks after Port Adelaide’s Jeremy Finlayson was suspended for three games for using a homophobic slur in a game.
During the pre-season, North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson was fined twenty-thousand dollars after he made a homophobic comment towards St Kilda players Jimmy Webster and Dougal Howard.
The AFL said that the increase in the penalty for Powell was due to its “deep concern about this repeat in close proximity to the last occurrence and in order to further deter such conduct in the future”.
Gold Coast chief executive Mark Evans said while he understood the AFL’s need to come down hard on such comments, and agreed that Powell deserved punishment, the club was not entirely comfortable with the length of the ban handed out.
“It’s been hard to work through the level of sanction, given previous instances,” Evans said.
“We respect that the AFL has got a job to do to continue the education and the leadership on the issue.
“But that did cause us some trouble, the level of sanction.”
