Richmond Football Club has declared that Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones will have to pay their own $75,000 fine, following a major breach of the AFL’s biosecurity rules, that saw the pair booted out of Queensland.
The pair, aged 20 and 21, were among 400 AFL players, officials, executives, WAGs and various others who were recently welcomed into Queensland, as part of a controversial arrangement that saw them bypass the state’s strict border lockdown.
In the early hours of Friday morning, the pair broke league rules by taking an Uber to a “non-approved Gold Coast venue”, understood to be a strip club, before getting into a physical altercation outside a neighbouring kebab shop.
Police were called, and Stack was reportedly detained and released a short time later.
Two men have been arrested following a disturbance in Surfers Paradise overnight. pic.twitter.com/qUsTnlmtWD
— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) September 4, 2020
Following an investigation, the AFL announced that Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones would be made to serve a ten-match suspension, and that Richmond would be fined $100,000 – $75,000 for the current breach and $25,000 suspended from an earlier one.
Yesterday, Fox Footy’s Tom Morris reported that Richmond wants the players themselves to pay the club’s fine. A short time later, however, the AFL Players’ Association cast doubt on this, saying it may not be allowed under the league’s code of conduct.
Given that the pair have already been sanctioned by the AFL, Richmond may not be allowed to hand down an additional penalty. It may be the case that the players will have to volunteer to foot the bill themselves, presumably paying $37,500 each.
It remains unclear who will actually have to pay the fine, and whether the pair will volunteer to do so. The Players’ Association has said “we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.”
AFL General Counsel Andrew Dillon said there is simply no excuse to breach protocols, telling media:
“The two players knew the rules and chose to ignore them, putting the safety of everyone at risk. The behaviour of the players is not what we expect, regardless of whether any protocols are in place or not.”
