Adelaide star Izak Rankine has reportedly reached out to a Collingwood player after allegations surfaced of a homophobic slur during Saturday night’s thriller at the Adelaide Oval.
His availability for the Crows’ finals series is now hinging on an AFL investigation. A Herald Sun report on Sunday evening confirmed a Crows player was involved, before 7 News Melbourne reporter Mitch Cleary named the player implicated as Rankine.
Then on Monday afternoon, The Age, on Monday afternoon, reported that Rankine called a Magpies player who has not been named to offer an apology, before the official investigation was launched.
The allegation is that Rankine called his opponent a f—-t. However, there is no evidence yet that the slur was actually made, with The Age and the Herald Sun only reporting that the assertion was being investigated.
Without going into any detail, the AFL confirmed that its Integrity Unit was looking into the matter.
“The AFL is aware of an alleged matter with the Integrity Unit making enquiries,” the League said in a statement.
Adelaide also acknowledged the investigation, but stopped short of naming Rankine.
“We are aware of an alleged matter involving one of our players in Saturday night’s game and we are in discussions with the AFL,” a club spokesman said.
Adelaide captain Jordan Dawson was quizzed on the matter by reporters as he arrived at the club’s West Lakes headquarters on Monday, but he also couldn’t offer much comment.
“Obviously, it’s not ideal,” he said.
“But it’s in the AFL’s hands, it’s being investigated, and we will see what happens.
“We will wait and see and leave it up to the AFL to go through what they have to go through.”
Collingwood vice-captain Brayden Maynard fronted the media and said his teammates were all “doing OK”. He too, didn’t want to comment specifically on the ‘touchy’ matter under investigation, but said homophobic incidents were happening too often.
“It’s happened, what, three or four times now, so we clearly need to stamp it out,” he said.
“I think we’re doing a great job of that and we’re doing as best as we can to stamp all that stuff out of the game. So, it’s not good to see.”
Magpies AFLW forward Sabrina Frederick says it is important that the game’s administrators stop these incidents to protect the players.
“Safety in football is huge,” she said.
“Creating an environment where players are safe to come to work, fans in support are safe to come experience the entertainment of football, that’s really important to us here at Collingwood, but across the entire AFL.”
The Crows’ three-point win has sealed a home qualifying final and a near-certain minor premiership, with Rankine typically influential with 18 disposals and a goal.
However, with just one match remaining before the finals series, the 25-year-old is facing a nervous wait to see whether he will be suspended for September, now that an AFL investigation into the alleged slur is underway.
Member of the Crows leadership group, Darcy Fogarty fronted the media at his previously scheduled time on Monday, which was fairly brief after mostly being asked questions over the Rankine incident.
While the forward could not speak on the incident itself, he doesn’t think that there are any widespread ‘cultural issues’ in the AFL that is behind inappropriate comments that are being made on-field.
“It’s obviously not ideal, but we are going to move on pretty quickly, we have a big game against North this week and that is going to take up a fair bit of our focus,” Fogarty said.
“As far as what I can comment on through my lens, from what I have seen it is positive and supportive.
“We are massive role models for the community, so we have to be really careful as to how we use that power.
“I can’t speak on behalf of other people, but for me sledging is not really my go-to, I am not quick witted enough. I am more focussed on getting a touch more than anything.
“I have never been exposed to it much. I can only speak from what I have experienced growing up it was never really a thing and here it hasn’t been much of a thing either.
“I have been involved in some cultures that are really positive and supportive.”
The AFL have taken a zero-tolerance approach to players uttering homophobic slurs on-field over the last few seasons, with hefty suspensions regularly doled out.
Port Adelaide’s Jeremy Finlayson was banned for three games after the first of several slurs made in 2024, with subsequent instances seeing Gold Coast’s Will Powell suspended for five weeks and St Kilda’s Lance Collard for six, the latter after an incident in the VFL. The league at the time made it clear that suspensions would grow exponentially for further infractions.
Earlier this year, West Coast midfielder Jack Graham was handed a four-match suspension for using homophobic language; however, the league revealed when confirming the ban that the punishment was mitigated due to Graham having self-reported to the AFL, and due to his substantial remorse shown thereafter.
Should the same growth of bans be used in judgment of Rankine if found guilty, the Crows star could be sidelined for the entirety of Adelaide’s finals campaign. With one home-and-away round and a maximum of four finals, a five-game ban would guarantee he misses the rest of the season, while a four-game suspension equal to Graham’s would leave his availability resting on the Crows making the grand final but losing their qualifying final, ensuring four finals played.
The Magpies have not made a public comment about the alleged incident.
Losing Rankine for September would be a disastrous blow for the Crows, with the midfielder/forward producing career-high numbers to drive the team’s remarkable rise from 15th at the end of 2024 all the way to first on the ladder.
Fogarty says if Rankine is suspended during the finals, he will be a loss for the side, but is confident that the club has the depth to cover, and a distraction, potentially as massive as this won’t derail their flag aspirations.
“We have had a massive process for the whole year as the next man up,” he said.
“So, we have massive belief in that any role can be filled at the moment with the boys that are playing and the squad we have got at the moment – we have full confidence.”
Averaging nearly 21 disposals a game and booting 30 goals from 21 games, Rankine gathered 20 second-half disposals and kicked a goal in the Crows’ comeback win over West Coast only last week.
He joined the Crows from Gold Coast after requesting a trade home to South Australia at the end of 2022, and has played 57 games across his three seasons at West Lakes.
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