Adelaide CEO Tim Silvers has explained that the Crows will look to get Izak Rankine out of the city for a few days, admitting he had been ‘a little nervous’ for the 25-year-old, after the small forward received a four-match suspension for a homophobic slur.
The AFL handed down its sanction on Thursday after five days of talks with the Adelaide Football Club.
Rankine breached the league’s rules on unbecoming conduct after the AFL found he had called an unnamed Collingwood player a ‘f****t’ during his side’s three-point win on Saturday.
Both the Crows and Rankine have condemned the footy player’s behaviour, with Silvers stating: ‘We don’t stand for what was said and that behaviour.’
He added that the club had accepted the sanction and would not be appealing the ban.
In their judgment, the AFL stated that they had taken into consideration ‘compelling medical submissions’ from the Crows, and judged that his suspension should be brought down from an initial five-game ban to four matches.
Adelaide CEO Tim Silvers has explained that the Crows will look to get Izak Rankine (pictured) out of the city for a few days
Silvers (pictured) explained that he was ‘nervous’ about the 25-year-old who had been through a difficult few days
Rankine, who will also undergo further Pride In Sport training, admitted he had made a mistake.
‘I regret using the word and I am very sorry for doing so, and that type of language has no place in football or the community,’ Rankine said in a statement on the club’s website.
‘It was a mistake and I have apologised to the Collingwood player, and what happened does not reflect my values or those of the Club.
‘I’m committed to educating myself and being better.’
The four-match ban means that Rankine could still technically play in finals this season. However, he will need his side to lose their qualifying final and win both the resulting semi-final and preliminary final.
He will subsequently be eligible to play in the Grand Final.
However, the footy player has, according to Silvers, ‘barely left his house over the last few days’.
‘I am a little, I am nervous for him,’ Silvers told reporters on Thursday after the AFL handed Rankine the four-match ban. ‘He has gone through a difficult time over the past couple of days.
The AFL stated that they had taken into consideration ‘compelling medical submissions’ from the Crows, and judged that his suspension should be brought down from an initial five-game ban to four matches
‘We have had the appropriate support around him and I think the release of the decision is good and him being able to get out of the house and be able to get away for a couple of days and reset and come back to the footy club.’
‘We are working through that for Izak at the moment. I think he might need some time out,’ he said, adding that he could leave the city for a short period of time.
‘He will need to continue to train and we are looking at some options to just get him away and out of the Adelaide environment for a week or so to make sure he trains and when he is ready to come back in we can’t wait to have him back.’
Silvers was unwilling to go into detail regarding the ‘compelling medical submissions’ the AFL had considered when handing down Rankine’s suspension.
‘It’s not appropriate,’ he explained. ‘It was part of an extensive submission we put to the AFL.’
Rankine is the sixth AFL player to be sanctioned for a homophobic slur over the past 16 months. He follows Swans player Riak Andrew and West Coast’s Jack Graham, who were handed respective bans earlier this season for homophobic comments made to opposition players.
At present, the AFL does not have any current players featuring in the top-flight who are openly gay. The Crows and Rankine’s initial statement, released on Thursday, did not issue an apology to members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
‘We have a number of our supporters and fans who are a part of that community, I apologise to them,’ Silvers said.
Rankine is the sixth AFL player to be sanctioned for a homophobic slur over the past 16 months
‘We want to have an inclusive environment that they are a part of and I hope to see a number of those fans and those supporters at our (AFLW) game at Unley on the weekend.’
Silvers reaffirmed that the club condemned Rankine’s actions, but had looked for some leniency.
‘I don’t think so, I want to put on the table that we were looking for some leniency in the length of the ban,’ he said.
‘What he did was wrong, his behaviour was inappropriate and he was always going to be sanctioned.
‘We were looking at a slightly reduced sanction, it wasn’t that we were not accepting that he had done something wrong.’
Silvers revealed that the Crows’ playing cohort were both ‘disappointed and frustrated’ by their fellow player’s actions.
‘It reflects poorly on our footy club but there is also a little bit of empathy for Izak, so we will support him through this,’ he said.
Silvers added: ‘I think we are all losers in some way here and we accept the penalty and we won’t be appealing, as a footy club we want to move on and Izak is very remorseful.’
Rankine, who will also undergo further Pride In Sport training, admitted he had made a mistake
Broadcaster Gerard Whateley (pictured) has lashed out at the AFL following the saga
The AFL, meanwhile, has received a lot of criticism from many within the football community relating to the sanction.
It comes after the league came under fire from other footy commentators and fans for opting to hire Snoop Dogg for the AFL Grand Final. The US rapper has a 1998 hit called ‘Doggz Gonna Get Ya’ which uses the same slur, ‘f****t’, that Rankine used. That has caused outrage among some, especially considering the league’s current zero-tolerance stance on homophobia.
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon published an LGBTQI+ Action Plan in April of this year. In the Action Plan, he wrote: ‘I want to be clear: there is absolutely no place for homophobia, biphobia, or transphobia – or any form of discrimination for that matter – in our game, workplace, or society.’
On Thursday night, broadcaster Gerard Whateley claimed that the four-match ban was a ‘disappointing moment from a disappointing administration.’
Whateley claimed in his column on SEN that following the league’s commitment to stamping out homophobia, Dillon has ‘failed to see through’ that claim by not imposing a five-match penalty on Rankine.
Others online have slammed the decision.
’In news that shocks absolutely no one, Izak Rankine may still play this season,’ X user @Hayleyyemma wrote.
‘The AFL has just told every single queer person that our right to be treated with basic human decency matters less than Rankine’s right to play finals football.
Jason Dunstall (pictured) admitted he was left confused by the AFL’s decision-making process
Fans and former footy player Tony Shaw hit out at the AFL, branding them ‘incompetient, amateurish and laughable’
‘Absolutely shameful @AFL.’
Ex-Collingwood player Tony Shaw wrote on X: ‘The compelling medical advice taken into account on Rankine plea? Izak is feeling sad that he stuffed up badly, letting himself, teammates and club down.
‘Well blow me down that deserves one week less? AFL incompetent, amateurish, laughable.’
Jason Dunstall, meanwhile, has spoken of his confusion on the AFL’s call to ban Rankine for only four games.
‘I’m about as confused as I could possibly be,’ Dunstall told Fox Footy.
‘I regard myself as at least a semi-intelligent man. I don’t know how compelling medical evidence gets you from five weeks down to four, and if we’re talking about mental health, by what metric, measurement scale are we saying that equates to one week.
‘I don’t understand, I’m confused. Can someone explain it to me?’
Dan Houston then clarified that the Crows needed to respect medical confidentiality around the matter, but added: ‘Adelaide would say is that there were certain triggers in regards to this, that he was triggered because being knocked out by Dan Houston last winter last year, that was one of the factors.’
Houston knocked Rankine out with a bump last year, and it is believed that the pair had a war of words on the pitch on Saturday, which Adelaide included in their submissions that triggered Rankine.
Both the Crows and Rankine have condemned the footy player’s behaviour
Dunstall replied: ‘The problem is we don’t get it properly explained to us. So there are triggers because you got knocked out last time. That’s a trigger, and I’m not having a go at Izak Rankine; I’m having a go at this case and the way it’s gone from five weeks to four weeks based on supposed compelling medical evidence.
‘And we’re hearing there are triggers that prompted a response, I just don’t get it, and I can’t comprehend how the fact that he got knocked out last time they played has anything to do with it.
‘The issue is they’re not idiots at AFL House. I’ve got great respect for Andrew Dillon. He’s a smart man as are the other people around him, but we’re not getting all the information. We’re just expected to take this as blind faith and say they’ve made the right decision.
‘We can’t do that because it doesn’t make sense without all the relevant facts to understand why they’ve decided to give a week off (the ban) to give him hope, perhaps, of playing in the Grand Final.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Rainbow Crows, Adelaide’s LGBTQIA+ supporter group and Pride In Sport for comment.
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