The Greater Western Sydney Giants have always had to go above and beyond to make a mark in rugby league heartland.
It’s been a policy of the club to have an open-door policy, which sets it apart from its more-traditional cross-city rivals, the Swans.
The change rooms after matches are a free-for-all, with family, friends and the media rubbing shoulders with the players and staff.
The media department has led the way, making players available and leading the pack with innovative social media content.
The club knows that it must be open and accessible to build its brand and thus far it’s done a great job in Australia’s most difficult sporting environment.
At the beginning of each season, the club opens its doors to the media to give football journalists a briefing about the season ahead and a chance to chat with players and the coach, Adam Kingsley.
At the beginning of the 2024 season, I found myself at the Giants headquarters at Olympic Park chatting and joking with a senior player about yet another National Rugby League scandal involving players, alcohol and some sort of misbehaviour.
The subtext of our conversion was that rugby league-style indiscretions wouldn’t happen here. After all, how hard is it really to go out, have a drink and not do something completely stupid?
These things happen in the AFL, of course, but either they happen more rarely or get swept under the carpet more effectively.
The Giants have been in the league for more than a decade and have had minimal blots on their copybook – Toby Greene facing charges after getting in a fight when he was 20 and senior player Lachie Whitfield getting suspended for six months over an illicit drug early in his career are the two discretions that stand out from the Giants time in the AFL.
But the entire club is now in disgrace and the good blokes persona the Giants have been cultivating has taken a beating thanks to the club’s Wacky Wednesday antics, which AFL CEO Andrew Dillon described as “completely unacceptable”.
It happened at a private party on September 18 at a venue the club had hired four days after the Giants’ semifinal loss to eventual premiers Brisbane.
The theme of the night was “controversial couples” with the players dressing up and some performing skits.
And just as it was when Toby Greene and Lachie Whitfield transgressed, it was the club’s young players who transgressed in this case, according to the AFL.
Fringe player, Josh Fahey came to the event dressed as a former NRL player. Reports have suggested it was Jarryd Hayne, who was jailed for rape before the conviction was dropped, along with Jake Riccardi who came as a taxi driver.
The AFL said Fahey performed a skit simulating sex acts on a blow-up doll.
Young players, Toby McMullin and Cooper Hamilton, who’s since been delisted, performed a skit simulating the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Another young player, Harvey Thomas dressed as a professional athlete – reportedly Australian NBA basketballer Josh Giddey, who was investigated for having a relationship with an underage girl.
Joe Fonti came as the girl.
Connor Idun, who is of Ghanaian descent, and Lachie Whitfield re-enacted a scene from the film Django Unchained, which the AFL said characterised slavery.
The AFL has handed all the players either bans or fines for “conduct unbecoming”.
Josh Fahey was banned for four matches, while Riccardi, McMullin, Hamilton, Thomas and Fonti all received two match bans.
Idun and Whitfield were fined $5,000 along with Toby Greene and other club leaders, Sam Taylor, Harry Perryman, Tom Green and Lachie Keefe who the AFL said were “senior players all in attendance [who] failed to display appropriate levels of leadership reasonably expected of each of them in failing to step in to stop the acts continuing”.
“The behaviour and the disrespect the players have demonstrated at this event do not uphold any of the values of the AFL or the Giants and the behaviour is not acceptable in any setting at any time,” AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said.
“There is nothing funny or clever about these actions and we are not as a code and competition prepared to accept these behaviours.
“We are also very disappointed that none of the leaders sanctioned sought to stop the behaviour.
“There was some really, really terrible decisions and choices made by the players on that day.”
Giants CEO David Matthews said there was “absolutely no excuse for the behaviour that took place”.
“As a club built on the values of inclusiveness and respect for all, it was a clear breach of the club’s policies and values as well as a significant departure from the standards of behaviour that we expect of our players,” he said in a statement.
“On behalf of the club, I apologise to our members, partners and all stakeholders.
“The players involved have apologised unreservedly for their behaviour and take responsibility for contravening the standards we expect in relation to respect, equality, inclusion and safety.”
Captain Toby Greene apologised for the incident.
“As a leader of the club and captain of the team, I am embarrassed that we are in this situation and that I failed to uphold my responsibilities as a leader to prevent it,” he said.
“I am disappointed I did not adequately process the situation, and intervene, in the moment.”
They are the right words to say, but one suspects it will take more than soothing words in a media release to heal the standing of a club and so many of its young players as well its leaders.
There are those who will say that the players shouldn’t be punished for things that happened behind closed doors.
But we know that one person in the room was sufficiently distressed to make a complaint on the AFL’s integrity portal.
Whoever that was, critics will shoot the messenger, but that misses the point.
It’s possible that there were players in the room who were offended but didn’t feel able to speak up.
Moreover, the behaviour in the room is symptomatic of an attitude that makes you wonder whether anyone was listening when the players sat down for their annual courses in how to treat women with respect.
If this is the way they act behind closed doors, then what do they really believe?
This wasn’t just one or two people, this was half a dozen, with seemingly no-one in a group of about 40 players speaking up to say it was offensive.
These same players share the clubrooms with the women of the Giants AFLW side and the netball team.
“It is important that we make it known that we were deeply hurt and angered when learning of the behaviour that occurred,” Giants AFLW captain Rebecca Beetson said.
“Playing the game we love gives us a platform to speak to the community, fans and young people.
“As the AFLW playing group, we feel it is of great importance to stress that the behaviour that included references to gender-based violence is completely unacceptable under any circumstances.”
The Giants male AFL players are on leave now, but when they return to the club and cross paths with the women in the organisation, one imagines they will do so with a considerable amount of shame and be forced to take part in some extremely difficult conversations.
The Giants have done a great job presenting a face to the world as an open and friendly football club.
They have an enormous job to restore that reputation.
