Jack Graham: West Coast Eagle has ‘learnt his lesson well and truly’ after homophobic slur, says Liam Duggan

West Coast co-captain Liam Duggan has described Jack Graham’s homophobic slur as a “slip of the tongue” as the Eagles hierarchy backed him in as a leader.

Coach Andrew McQualter led his post-match press conference with an emphatic statement on Graham — who copped a four-match ban for the incident in last Friday’s loss to Greater Western Sydney — and backed the club’s handling of the incident.

Duggan also revealed to The West Australian that Graham addressed the playing group in Adelaide on Sunday morning.

The 27-year-old was brought to the club alongside Liam Baker to play under McQualter, who Graham worked under at Richmond, where he won two premierships.

The pair were elevated straight into the leadership group.

The incident comes when the rebuilding club is crying out for leaders. Co-captain Oscar Allen, midfield director Elliot Yeo and experienced forward Jake Waterman are all ruled out for the season. Premiership heroes Dom Sheed and Jeremy McGovern have both retired mid-season.

“We spoke about it this morning, all the details were finalised. Jack owned it completely, he was able to get up in front of the boys and just let everyone know what was going on,” Duggan told The West Australian.

“He’s very remorseful, he’s owned the mistake that he made. He’s in our leadership group, he’s a great character.

“Slip of the tongue and we know he’s learnt his lesson well and truly.

“We’ll miss Jack for three more games but we’ll completely stick behind him.

Asked directly if he was supportive of Graham continuing in a leadership role, Duggan responded: “I back him fully to continue in that role mate”.

“It was a mistake made and one that Jack was on the front foot (for), he handled everything the right way from the get-go.

“We trust Jack in that sense as well and we will stick behind him and he will continue to play a leadership role at the footy club off-field and we will see him in a few weeks.”

McQualter defended the club’s handling of the incident. It was almost a full week before the AFL’s integrity unit was made aware of the incident after days worth of high-level discussions between the Eagles and the Giants.

The AFL confirmed to The West on Sunday the club was not obligated to inform them because no official complaint was made.

The Eagles coach confirmed he was made aware of the incident when Graham self-reported on the Friday night in the hours after the loss to the Giants.

“The process we followed the AFL were happy with and it’s OK,” McQualter said.

“We followed a process with the Giants and the AFL were informed and then that process followed.

“We understand it was a mistake that Jack made, but I have mentioned I have known him for a very long time, he is a good person, he made an error and he is now being punished for that error.”

“Jack is a very good person. He used one word that is a mistake and he is copping a serious punishment for that word and he understands that that’s right.”

McQualter said Graham and the Eagles have accepted the sanction, which lobs in between those handed out last season. Port Adelaide’s Jeremy Finlayson was banned for three matches for using a similar one-word slur, but Gold Coast’s Wil Powell missed five games and St Kilda’s Lance Collard six as part of a crackdown to stamp out the issue.

The off-season recruit won’t be in the line-up for a clash against his old club Richmond next week, while also missing a western derby match-up with Fremantle and a road fixture against Melbourne.