Gillon McLachlan says the AFL does not need a code of conduct on sledging
AFL CHIEF executive Gillon McLachlan says the league does not need a code of conduct on sledging despite the incident with Marc Murphy at the weekend.
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THE AFL does not need a code of conduct on sledging, chief executive Gillon McLachlan said on Tuesday.
His comment came as Carlton skipper Marc Murphy welcomed St Kilda’s expressions of regret over comments targeting his wife, Jessie.
Murphy, 29, on Monday night hit out at “hurtful” comments regarding his wife of five months, as Saints coach Alan Richardson and captain Jarryn Geary admitted the team had “overstepped the mark” with its sledging in Saturday’s fiery clash at Etihad Stadium.
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Both Richardson and Geary contacted the Blues’ captain, who said he wanted to leave the issue behind.
“It’s been a pretty tough time for more so my family rather than me,” Murphy said.
“I issued a statement ... (I’m) pretty keen to move on and look forward to being back playing some footy this weekend.
“We’ve been through a little bit over the last few days.
“St Kilda footy club has been good in getting in contact with me, so I think both parties are pretty keen to move forward.”
Despite calls to do so, the AFL will not investigate the matter.
McLachlan said there were sufficient rules without a player code of conduct regarding on-field slurs, and there was a tacit “line” defined when it came to sledging. He said what St Kilda had done in the past 24 hours was “what we need”.
“My view is that we have plenty of rules,” McLachlan said.
“There is a line out there and I think generally it’s not breached.
“I think when you have the leadership of the St Kilda Football Club from the coach and the captain saying ‘we got it wrong’, that’s what we need.
“In the end, it’s about people owning their behaviour and being accountable to it.
“Occasionally, our players get it wrong, and it sounds like they did on the weekend, but leadership is putting your hand up and saying you got it wrong, and that’s what they did.
“We’ve got plenty of rules. Sometimes we make mistakes and we’ve got to own them and that’s what happened.”
Collingwood’s Adam Treloar said he saw the incident as a “one-off thing”.
“The players are respectful enough to know it’s a football game and you don’t need to overstep the mark by saying something inappropriate,” Treloar said.
“I’ve never heard something and thought ‘hey, you can’t be saying that’.”
Treloar said there could be room for some form of official code.
“There could be. That just nails it down and then have a punishment if you get caught saying something indecent,” he said on SEN radio.
“You just have to monitor it well.”
Lions premiership player Jonathan Brown said the “player code” dictated that family-based sledging was “off limits”.
“That is actually not against the rules, I think it is the players’ (unofficial) code,” he said on Nova 100.
“You probably don’t go there; it’s common sense, but some players are not as moral as other players.”
Originally published as Gillon McLachlan says the AFL does not need a code of conduct on sledging
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