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Sport Nation
Phil Davis’ three rules when it comes to AFL sledging
SEN • May 8th, 2025 8:35 am
Former GWS captain Phil Davis has joined the chorus of AFL figures calling for Willie Rioli to be sanctioned for threatening opposition players.
Rioli’s behaviour came to the fore once it was reported that he directed a threatening message to Bulldogs defender Bailey Dale. Since then, it’s alleged that he’s also given similar threats on the field to players from the Bombers and Cats.
Given that Rioli’s conduct is so out of line with what’s expected of an AFL footballer, Davis called on the club, AFLPA and league to hand down a sanction and investigate if anything sinister is going on with the Power forward that he needs support with.
ON A POTENTIAL RIOLI PUNISHMENT
“It's definitely a unique one, one that we don't see very often,” Davis told SEN Whateley.
“As we know, there's a couple of things going on, we've got the on-field stuff and the off-field stuff.
“First, we have a text message to someone else and we can quickly make a pretty quick decision there that's inappropriate.
“At no point should anyone have their safety off the field put into question or even deemed to be uncertain, especially from, in my mind, almost like a colleague because we work in the same industry.
“The next step is to make the best decision to stop the behaviour, and I guess that's where the inaction has been caught into question.
“He's done a couple of things this year via social media. My thing is, it's a discussion to start about what's actually going on, and then I think it's pretty easy to cast a suspension on to him.
“If there's something more sinister that he really needs support with, then I think time away from the game would be appropriate too.
“I think threatening physical harm - which is insinuated that was done - I think that's definitely a fine or a one-week suspension. He definitely needs to be reprimanded for that behaviour.”
ON-FIELD TRASH TALKING
Having played 15 years and 192 games of AFL footy, Davis heard just about everything that could be said between players on the field, but none of them were as serious as off-field threats.
Davis thinks that the off-field nature of the threat and dealing with the unknown of that puts this in a different category from typical sledging.
“For me, in 15 years of playing I don’t think I ever heard a threat of someone off the field,” Davis said.
“I heard a million about, ‘I’ll clean you up’, and those kinds of things.
“Lots of things are said about future chances of success in life etc, but an off-field threat I never heard. I heard threats on the field which you can laugh at because you know nothing will happen on the field.
“So, it’s a strange comment for me to threaten someone’s safety off the field when on the field. I’ve never experienced it. It’s more serious than the stuff that is normally said on the field.
“Making threats to safety is unacceptable and it’s unnecessary. It is the end of the world? No. But it’s unnecessary, it’s dealing with the unknown.”
DAVIS’ THREE RULES FOR SLEDGING
While he wasn’t known as a sledger during his playing days, Davis always took to the field with three rules when it came to engaging in banter with the opposition.
Letting backline teammate Heath Shaw do the talking, never sledging your own opponent and never starting the back and forth yourself.
“I had a couple of general rules,” Davis explained.
“I often would love listening to Heath Shaw – just let him do what he does, he was always wildly entertaining.
“Number two, I’d never sledge my own opponent. It was too risky for me I was too scared it would backfire.
“Then generally it was upon provocation to me or my teammate that I would get involved. I was never that witty or smart.
“I would generally try and point out flaws in one person’s game that I could chip away at over time and sometimes I would just make sure I knew a bit about them and their hobbies.”
Listen to Davis’ full chat with Gerard Whateley here.
