The AFL’s latest regrettable chapter was handled delicately in some areas, while others initially viewed it largely through a sporting lens
Sydney Swans chief executive Matthew Pavlich, coach Dean Cox and captain Callum Mills spoke to reporters in the 24 hours after police began investigating an alleged sexual assault at the Pullman Hotel on Monday.
None of the three said much – likely on legal advice – but none felt compelled to even share a thought about the woman or women whose experiences prompted them to go to police.
For a sport with an unsatisfactory record on rape and sexual violence, this week delivered another regrettable chapter.
Nobody has been arrested or charged and formal interviews have not taken place. So far there is little detail widely known about what has occurred.
But according to family violence specialist and former chief executive of Respect Victoria, Emily Maguire, alleged victims should not be forgotten.
“They are human beings,” she says. “They are women, likely to be younger women, who need privacy, who need to make sure that they’re safe and supported and that they’ve got that support around them.”
The situation has drawn extreme media interest, filling pages of newspapers and hours of television coverage, while also spreading quickly on social media. Footy fans and hangers on brought their own baggage to circumstances that were already heavy.
Some public figures – including on prominent football programmes – handled the matter delicately, even as Channel Seven personality Kane Cornes approached the alleged sexual assault largely from a sporting lens.
“This is where I get really angry, from a football point of view,” he said. “Their season is done. How would [veterans] Dane Rampe, Jake Lloyd or Tom Papley, who has lost three grand finals be feeling?”
The AFL has so far declined to comment, as they wait for the police to make enquiries and determine the facts in this instance.
The club and the players have not yet had the chance to provide a full account of the evening, to police or to the wider football community.
The broader truth, however, is already well known. Australia has a problem, with one in five women experiencing sexual violence. Repeated, high-profile instances of abuse of women by footballers, as well as academic research, highlight how problematic attitudes towards women fester in football clubs around the country.
The influential 2021 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey recommended ending violence against women by challenging “attitudes condoning gender inequality through points of influence, such as peer and social groups”, specifically identifying the importance of sports clubs and groups.
“What the research tells us about male-dominated institutions, which the AFL is, sports clubs absolutely are, if they are bonding in a way that is focused around control or dominance or performances of strength or toughness, or they have social expectations put on them that they shouldn’t say no to sex, or they should have multiple sexual partners, what the global research tells us is that in those sorts of cultures, sexual assault in particular and other forms of violence against women are much more likely to occur,” Maguire says.