GWS Giants CEO Dave Matthews questions AFL after Geelong’s Mad Monday antics take wrong turn

GWS Giants CEO Dave Matthews is a little baffled over a lack of consistency around club sanctions in the wake of Geelong’s Mad Monday scandal.

Several Giants players were heavily penalised after their end-of-year celebrations got out of hand around 12 months ago.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Geelong’s Mad Monday antics slammed as embarrassing.

In fact, six Giants players were suspended and a further seven copped fines for their involvement in the dress-up party scandal.

Geelong’s celebrations this week have also been frowned upon, accused of extremely poor taste, misogyny, homophobia, and generally crossing the line.

But there is no punishment in sight, only an apology from the club and a future ban on costumes at end-of-season parties.

“I’ve been an interested observer in what’s happened,” Matthews said on Trade Radio.

“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.

“I’ve said this before and I don’t think it’s news to (CEO) Andrew Dillon and (new football boss) Greg (Swann) and Tom Harley (chief operating officer) 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 revealed some GWS players and staff were also wondering why Geelong players were not being sanctioned.

“You’re going to have issues from time to time and you should get judged on how you deal with them,” he said.

“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 directly if he thought Geelong was being favourably treated.

“You’ve probably got to be really into the detail of the circumstances they’ve found themselves in to properly assess that,” he said.

“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.”