{"id":6546,"date":"2026-05-07T07:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6546\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:06:07","slug":"afl-2026-brisbane-lions-player-koby-evans-suspended-for-use-of-homophobic-slur-in-vfl-game-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6546\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Brisbane Lions player Koby Evans suspended for use of homophobic slur in VFL game, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane\u2019s Koby Evans has been suspended four matches for the use of a homophobic slur<\/a> in the VFL. <\/p>\n

The AFL confirmed on Thursday afternoon that Evans had been found guilty of breaching Rule 2.3(a) (Conduct Unbecoming) in an incident during the VFL Lions\u2019 Round 6 clash with Coburg.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood Evans apologised multiple times, both during and after the match<\/a>, after the alleged comment was made to a Coburg opponent. <\/p>\n

In addition to missing four games, the 18-year-old will also undertake education on LGBTQI+ inclusion. <\/p>\n

Evans\u2019 self-reporting of the incident earned him a four-match sanction instead of the typical five-match penalty, which is what Gold Coast\u2019s Wil Powell in 2024 and Sydney\u2019s Riak Andrew last year copped. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone understands that homophobia and homophobic language has absolutely no place in our game at any level or in the wider community,\u201d AFL Chief Operating Officer Tom Harley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur players have a very clear understanding of what is acceptable on the football field and in society. Koby self-reported this incident and has taken ownership of his mistake both privately and publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely disappointing to be dealing with another incident of this nature. While we will always examine the individual circumstances, we cannot be more clear that respect and inclusion are not optional in our game – they are fundamental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans, a West Australian midfielder, was drafted with the 38th pick in last November\u2019s national draft and has played five VFL matches this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane\u2019s Koby Evans has been suspended four matches for the use of a homophobic slur in the VFL.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23,133,518,99,408,3444,7931,1311,5798,564,5797,7935,7934,120,212,7933,6530,7932,7936],"class_list":{"0":"post-6546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brisbane","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","10":"tag-australian-football-league","11":"tag-brisbane","12":"tag-brisbane-lions","13":"tag-chris-hyde","14":"tag-four-match-sanction","15":"tag-gold-coast","16":"tag-homophobic-slur","17":"tag-jack-jovanovski","18":"tag-koby-evans","19":"tag-lions-draftee-cops","20":"tag-mandated-club-psychologist","21":"tag-oceania","22":"tag-queensland","23":"tag-team-photo-day","24":"tag-tom-harley","25":"tag-typical-five-match-penalty","26":"tag-wil-powell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}