AFL 2024: Education sessions not enough to prevent poor behaviour, says AFLPA boss

The boss of the AFL Players’ Association has doubled down on controversial comments made following the GWS player sanctions.

AFLPA boss Paul Marsh claims players are “starting to fall asleep” during meetings and need more than mandatory education workshops to learn how to behave appropriately.

Marsh said players were sitting through too much content to absorb and the league had to do more to “get this message to sink in” following the sanctions issued to GWS players for their offensive acts at an end of season party last month.

The players’ association chief executive repeated his call for the AFL to agree to an MRO-style set of guidelines that would determine the size of sanctions for off-field or abusive behaviour.

Marsh said the process that led to six GWS players being suspended and a further seven leaders handed fines was “not acceptable” due to its murky nature.

“We’re obviously frustrated on this particular issue, and we’re trying to work through to get to a point which we don’t think is that challenging,” he told SEN on Wednesday.

Six GWS Giants players were suspended and a further seven issued fines as a result of an AFL investigation into their end of season function. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“There’s a way to do this, and we have put a solution to the AFL around how we can put a disciplinary framework in place.

“I think it’s really difficult at the moment when we think the AFL has for a long time left this very open, so we have this ‘conduct unbecoming’ charge where the AFL almost puts its finger up and sees which way the wind is blowing and then determines what the length of the sanction is.

“It’s not acceptable from where we sit. We need to get to a point where there’s some certainty around it, and it’s possible.”

Marsh pointed to the framework agreed upon by the AFLPA and AFL during the Covid seasons to sanction players for breaches of the strict quarantine guidelines as an example of where a consistent process could be applied.

AFLPA boss Paul Marsh says the AFL needs to introduce a consistent framework to determine the length of sanctions for players who commit offences such as homophobic abuse. Picture: James Ross / AAP

When challenged on his complaint about the “spiralling of sanctions” for repeat offences given players receive extensive education on respectful and inclusive behaviour, Marsh said the league’s induction processes were still failing players.

“The AFL investigates an issue like this – they’re judge, jury and executioner, they hand down the sanction and there’s no framework, so what might have been four weeks at a maximum on this issue could be 10 next year,” he said.

“We’re putting young men and women into a system straight out of school, with no life experience for most of them.

“What happens in our industry is players sit through so much content, whether that be from the coaches, from the PA, from the club, whoever they bring in, and it’s not that easy to comprehend at times.

“People just start to fall asleep in these sessions, and we’ve got to do more to get this message to sink in.”

Originally published as AFL 2024: Education sessions not enough to prevent poor behaviour, says AFLPA boss