AFL under fire for failing to penalise Port’s Willie Rioli for sending threatening message to opponent

An AFL player giving the bird to the crowd gets fined but another sending a threatening message to an opponent escaped penalty and that hasn’t gone down well.

AFL great Tim Watson says he’s “staggered” Willie Rioli escaped any sanction amid a “lily-livered” league response despite the Port Adelaide forward sending a threatening message towards Western Bulldogs defender Bailey Dale.

But Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said the club, and Dale, accepted Rioli’s apology for a “mistake” and were keen to move on.

Rioli went unpunished after an AFL investigation into the private message, which was sent to a teammate of Dale after he and Rioli were involved in a scuffle at Mars Stadium in Ballarat on Saturday, prompting the Bulldogs to act.

It’s understood Rioli messaged the teammate to say he had friends in Darwin, where the Bulldogs play this week, and Dale should be careful about leaving the team hotel while in the city.

There was no disputing the message was sent, but the league and both clubs deemed an apology from Rioli was sufficient to end the matter.

That hasn’t gone down well in the AFL world, however, and Watson said the lack of penalty didn’t address the need to police player behaviour standards.

“I’m staggered that the AFL has (not punished Rioli),” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.

Bailey Dale after an incident with Willie Rioli. Picture: Michael Klein

“OK, Willie Rioli reaches out to Bailey Dale and apologises, that’s fine. Everybody apologises once they’ve been caught out, that’s just standard behaviour of human beings.

“That doesn’t mean to say that it can just be swept under the carpet and there not be any form of penalty or discipline applied by the AFL.

“I am staggered that they have just allowed what they did allow yesterday to be the course of action that was taken on their behalf.

“If you say the wrong thing out there on the football field and the AFL becomes aware of it or the umpire reports it, or whatever, you are then responsible even in the heat of the moment.”

Both clubs issues statements in the wake of the investigation, but the AFL’s came in for particular scorn, with Melbourne great Garry Lyon calling it “lily-livered”.

“The general public are saying why didn’t the AFL extend the lily-livered explanation about reminding both clubs to ensure any communication remain respectful? Why hasn’t that been applied in the past?” he said.

Rioli apologised for the message. Picture: Michael Klein

“Why is this when someone is threatening violence to an opposition player they get a pretty light, soft reminder to ensure communication remains respectful? Why hasn’t that been afforded to other players in the past?”

Beveridge however said Rioli had made a mistake and the club was satisfied with the resolution and Dale wanted to “move past it”.

“He’ll learn from it, and we’re all OK with that,” he said.

“And so I think the discretion there is important, and I think that how both clubs are treating it, and let’s just learn from it and move on and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Originally published as AFL under fire for failing to penalise Port’s Willie Rioli for sending threatening message to opponent