AFL integrity department to probe fake rumours of betting scandal at Collingwood

A “sick” attempt to rubbish Collingwood players with hoax claims they were embroiled in a betting ring will be probed by the AFL’s integrity department after a request from a fuming Pies president Eddie McGuire.

Jaidyn Stephenson is serving a suspension for betting. Pic: AAP

Fake claims 10 Collingwood players were involved in a betting scandal will be investigated by the AFL’s integrity department after an official Magpies request.

Leading media lawyer Justin Quill yesterday warned the fake texts were the worst kind of defamation because of the person’s “egotistical desire to see a lie go viral”.

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Eddie McGuire isn’t happy about a fake text that started a Collingwood betting rumour.

But Quill said a screen shot of a text was much harder to trace back to its source than an email or tweet, given the lack of a data trail.

Furious Collingwood president Eddie McGuire yesterday said the AFL’s integrity department was on the case given the serious nature of the claims which swept Melbourne on Thursday.

The league will investigate after being handed a copy of the fraudulent texts, with their integrity department to attempt to source their origin.

As Quill says, the allegations are especially damaging because of how damaging they are and because they mention specific players.

Gambling rumor doing the rounds ... utterly false. So, no more tweets thanks.

— Mark Robinson (@Robbo_heraldsun) August 8, 2019

“This is clearly defamation and it's the worst kind of defamation where it appears someone has made this up for no good reason,” he told the Herald Sun.

“Maybe it’s because of an egotistical desire to see a lie they made up go viral.

“It’s sick and its easily actionable but this is the critical thing, only if you can identify who was the person who started the lies.

“The person who does it knows it’s a lie and starts it and spreads it and clearly that person has done it maliciously.

“But if you trace it back it will look like a grapevine and the end of it goes through the whole vineyard.

“It is deviously evil because as with all conmen and liars they use an element of truth around a player being suspended and make it all the more believable. It’s the evil, sinister nature of it.”

Jaidyn Stephenson was hit with a 10-week ban for betting on Collingwood games. Picture: AAP

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McGuire told Triple M he wasn’t prepared to simply ignore the false rumours about Collingwood players betting.

“What happens in these things now is everyone has a bit of a laugh … the AFL Integrity department, this is a very serious department of the AFL with the backing of Victoria Police, are investigating all this,” McGuire said.

“There’s defamatory comments there, forget about the harassment part of it, but the integrity of the game is paramount to everybody. So nobody’s taking a happy-go-lucky view on this.”

“On supporter sites people are tearing each other apart saying ‘What’s going on at this club? Who’s running the place? They’re a mob of idiots, what are the players doing?’, clearly on the back of Jaidyn Stephenson a couple of months ago.”

When asked about the rumour at his press conference on Friday, Buckley ensured he didn’t buy into the controversy.

“I suppose this is where you want me to deny it so you can write about it,” he said.

“I refuse to deny it.”

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Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has rubbished rumours his club is at the centre of a second betting controversy after an elaborate hoax swept social media in recent days.

The hoax was centred around a mobile phone screenshot which purported to show a message exchange from a young Pies player talking about a betting syndicate.

The story goes that nine Collingwood players had bet against their side when they lost a recent game and that they’d been busted — with the AFL Commission already called in to deal with it.

Originally published as AFL integrity department to probe fake rumours of betting scandal at Collingwood