Pictures showing a Bendigo Thunder player exposing herself to traffic while hanging out of a bus window on and end-of-season football trip have been labelled a “disgrace” by the club’s hierarchy.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Social media images depict a woman, dressed in a specially-designed ‘Thunder’ guernsey, waving and saluting passing traffic with her top pulled up.
Players and other members of the club, whose senior side competes in the Northern Women’s Football League, are in Byron Bay on a end-of-season trip.
Club chairperson Ian Ross said the behaviour was a “disgrace”.
“It's certainly unacceptable to us as a club,” he said.
“It’s not the sort of behaviour we would expect of young adults we're trying to develop into good community members.”
Mr Ross said the trip, nor the guernsey worn, had been endorsed or sanctioned by the club, which was “making some phone calls to try to understand what's going on up there”.
The club would make sure the individuals involved were spoken to so they understood the standards of behaviour expected of those representing the club, Mr Ross said.
The behaviour, and its proliferation through social media, was new ground for the club, according to Mr Ross, who suggested the incident would be a focus of the 2017 season review.
“I'm quite confident they'll be a significant change in the way we put in rules and regulations of expectations of behaviour,” he said.
AFL Central Victoria regional general manager Carol Cathcart said the organisation sent mid-year emails to all clubs, urging them not to sanction end-of-season trips.
Ms Cathcart – not commenting directly on the images – said all players should be mindful of what organisation they were representing when they went away on social trips.
And Ms Cathcart said she couldn’t comment on whether AFL Central Victoria would launch an investigation into the behaviour.
A local police constable suggested the actions of the women could be classified as offensive behaviour or willful obscene exposure under the Summary Offences Act.
Bendigo Thunder general manager Bryan Coghlan said the club would talk to the women involved in the trip next week.
“It’s certainly something we wouldn’t be proud of,” said Mr Coghlan, adding the club had a social media policy and a code of conduct for players to abide by.
The Bendigo Advertiser has requested to speak with the woman pictured, however the club has requested all communications go through chairperson Ian Ross.
