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Geelong Mad Monday: Giants chief bemoans AFL inconsistency
Andrew Slevison • October 2nd, 2025 2:42 pm
GWS CEO Dave Matthews wonders whether his club has been treated differently when it comes to sanctions for end-of-season celebrations.
The Giants were punished heavily for their post-season get-together last year with several players copping lengthy bans for dressing up and acting in an offensive manner.
Just this week Geelong players were seen purporting as public figures in their annual Mad Monday celebrations which offended and prompted the cancellation of future end-of-season bashes.
The AFL has said they will leave such matters to be dealt with at club level which suggests to Matthews an inconsistent approach.
“I’ve been an interested observer in what’s happened. Generally I don’t speak about other clubs or other players but I think this is a broader AFL issue in terms of the framework and process by which circumstances or sanctions are worked through,” Matthews said on AFL Trade Radio.
“I’ve said this before and I don’t think it’s news to Andrew Dillon and Greg (Swann) and Tom Harley coming in - we just need more consistency
“We need a framework that the fans, the players and the clubs understand. Because at the moment there’s what’s happened, and then everybody is guessing about what happens next.
“I liked Greg’s comments yesterday about saying it’s a matter for the clubs and the clubs are equipped to deal with it. That’s certainly the way we felt last year when we became aware of what transpired.
“We investigated it thoroughly, so did the AFL. Both the Giants and the AFL established the same set of facts, but we had a different view on sanctions. We’re the first club in the competition to establish an integrity committee, so I reckon we’re very well-equipped to be open and honest.
“We don’t shy away from the fact there were issues on the day. We had a difference in opinion about the way sanctions should be provided.
“I’m sure I’m going to get questions from players about how did we face game suspensions at the time, because we were proposing financial sanctions.”
Matthews admits he and his club is finding it a little tricky to work out why the Giants were so heavily sanctioned while the Cats are more or less getting away scot-free.
“You’re going to have issues from time to time and you should get judged on how you deal with them,” he added.
“We felt we dealt with that really well last year and it just set us back when you’re starting the season with key players out.
“The first thing that happened this week is I was getting messages from players and staff saying, ‘So, Geelong is going to start the season with players suspended?’. That’s the difficulty.
“Credit to Geelong because they put out a statement, they said this was unacceptable, they apologised. The question could also be - is there a consequence?
“That’s not targeting Geelong in any way, it’s just that one year ago we dealt with all sorts of consequences and they dragged on for months with continued public discussion around it.
“Generally I think players in the AFL are exceptionally well-behaved. From time to time mistakes are made. Then there’s just got to be consistency in the way things are dealt with.”
Matthews was asked if Geelong is treated differently to other clubs.
Stopping short of answering that directly, he did indicate he was miffed there has been no sanction for the public nature of Cats players’ social media posts.
“You’ve probably got to be really into the detail of the circumstances they’ve found themselves in to properly assess that,” he said further.
“The things that become public, like particularly targeting Caroline Wilson, I just thought it had an intent to try and humiliate somebody who is well-respected inside the game and a senior woman. At a time where respect and responsibility is something the AFL is so strong on and we are as a club.
“They’re the things you look at and you go that’s just self-evident. There’s no dispute or ambiguity about that.
“It’s a public post, the intention on that is very clear. They’re the things that probably irk you more than others. I don’t work myself too much on other things that we don’t know the detail about.
“But some of that public stuff is pretty clear, I would have thought.”
