Geelong Cats expected to address Bailey Smith and team’s Mad Monday dress-up controversies

The AFL was “not thrilled” with Geelong players’ Mad Monday costumes and social media antics, but will leave the Cats to deal with it.

Star midfielder Bailey Smith made a series of Instagram posts from the Cats’ Mad Monday function, following Geelong’s 47-point grand final loss to Brisbane.

Smith was dressed as Legends of the Fall character Tristan Ludlow, played by Brad Pitt, while skipper Patrick Dangerfield’s own cowboy costume was a nod to the TV show Yellowstone.

Smith later posted a photo of himself and Dangerfield.

In the caption, Smith referenced the movie Brokeback Mountain, which depicts a complex romantic relationship between two cowboys, and wrote “this is what losing a granny does to ya”.

Former West Coast defender Mitch Brown, the first AFL player to publicly reveal he is bisexual, was unimpressed.

“In all seriousness though, guys do better,” Brown wrote on Instagram.

“Last time I checked, losing a grand final doesn’t make you gay, but being homophobic definitely makes you a loser.”

Smith also posted a photo of teammate Max Holmes, who had dressed as veteran journalist Caroline Wilson, and in the caption suggested she had “never looked better”.

AFL football performance boss Greg Swann expected Geelong to address the situation on Wednesday afternoon.

“Look, we have spoken to Geelong and had a chat to (chief executive) Steve Hocking,” Swann said.

“They’re actually dealing with it. We’ve always - well, certainly in my time - we think the clubs are the best people to deal with it, their players.

“We’re not thrilled, obviously, with what happened - and nor are Geelong.

“So they’re going to take some steps. I think there’ll be something coming out this afternoon around that.

“And so we’ve pushed it down to them to deal with, so we’ve had some good chats to them about it.”

Swann said when the AFL checked in, Geelong had already been handling the situation and attempting to round up their players.

“It’s hard to find people and they’ve all disappeared and they haven’t surfaced and things like that,” he said.

“So they’ve been doing a little bit of work in the background trying to sort that out.

“Hopefully this afternoon you’ll see where that’s landed, and we’re happy with that.”

Last year the AFL handed down suspensions and fines to GWS players involved in an end-of-season function that involved sexist skits and inappropriate costumes.

Swann indicated leaving clubs to deal with player behaviour was the AFL’s preference going forward.

“You might see that change. As I said, I think these are club issues,” he said.

“I’m not sure why the AFL (would step in). We will step in if we have to, but let the clubs deal with it.”