{"id":79885,"date":"2026-08-25T07:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T07:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/79885\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T07:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T07:20:09","slug":"afl-2026-richmond-release-statement-as-stars-deny-they-were-referencing-sydney-swans-during-mad-monday-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/79885\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Richmond release statement as stars deny they were referencing Sydney Swans during Mad Monday celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pub which hosted Richmond\u2019s Mad Monday celebrations have addressed an incident in which players seemingly mocked the Sydney Swans.<\/p>\n

The Tigers are investigating the conduct of their players after a video circulated online appeared to show players whipping each other with a belt.<\/p>\n

Josh Smillie was one of the players involved, with the midfielder appearing to pull down his pants before feigning shock after being struck.<\/p>\n

A teammate hits him three times and then Smillie overreacts to a fourth slap, though the players have denied it was a reference to the claim made by one woman at the centre of the Swans incident, who said she was slapped on the buttocks four times, not the agreed three.<\/p>\n

The Garfield Hotel, the pub which hosted Richmond\u2019s celebrations, responded with a statement after the video circulated online.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hosted the Richmond Football Club at our venue today, and we could not speak more highly of the way they conducted themselves,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor such a young group, they were extremely respectful and a fun group of boys to deal with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey enjoyed a few quiet beers to unwind after a long season, and we see nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had booked out the venue for the afternoon, so they were the only patrons on site. <\/p>\n

\"AFL<\/p>\n

They enjoyed their afternoon and moved on. In our view, this has been blown out of proportion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo members of the media were waiting on their arrival this morning and remained on site filming in the hope of capturing a misstep, which we consider disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club confirmed they are investigating the incident in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichmond is aware of a video circulating from a player end of season gathering,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Club has spoken to the players who have expressed their embarrassment over their behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players are adamant they were in no way referencing or making light of recent matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes after the Swans stood down five players for breaching club standards following an incident at a Melbourne hotel last week.<\/p>\n

Richmond\u2019s season concluded with defeat to Geelong on Saturday, with the Tigers picking up just three wins all year.<\/p>\n

News.com.au has contacted the club for comment.<\/p>\n

Read related topics:Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pub which hosted Richmond\u2019s Mad Monday celebrations have addressed an incident in which players seemingly mocked the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[124015,123997,53980,124004,123995,124021,124022,124005,124010,105516,124009,123996,42139,37726,45833,124001,47467,19412,7702,31752,68085,39649,124000,100500,8480,51482,1416,124016,66914,124003,124008,17667,124014,40247,41768,124024,69399,37298,74641,124007,1440,124017,16821,124020,124012,41889,124013,21966,36540,123998,124025,247,5009,40132,124011,75312,36649,37656,39770,42262,47645,36531,40564,116506,124023,39779,49618,123999,36522,28256,124019,103713,28599,38292,37494,36698,124002,49142,108475,124018,121580,37242,39257,31666,124006],"class_list":["post-79885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-s-celebrations","tag-s-mad-monday-celebrations","tag-s-season","tag-a-belt-josh-smillie","tag-a-few-quiet-beers","tag-a-fourth-slap","tag-a-fun-group","tag-a-highly-unusual-pre-game-ritual-they","tag-a-long-season","tag-a-melbourne-hotel","tag-a-misstep","tag-a-player-end","tag-a-reference","tag-a-statement","tag-a-video","tag-all-year-news-com-au","tag-an-incident","tag-boys","tag-club-standards","tag-comment","tag-defeat","tag-each-other","tag-feigning-shock","tag-five-players","tag-footage","tag-four-times","tag-geelong","tag-gold-coast-suns-midfielder-matt-rowell","tag-his-pants","tag-just-three-wins","tag-last-week-richmond","tag-light","tag-mad-monday-celebrations","tag-no-way","tag-one-woman","tag-our-venue","tag-our-view","tag-players","tag-proportion","tag-recent-matters","tag-richmond","tag-richmond-statement","tag-saturday","tag-season-gathering","tag-sherrins","tag-site","tag-smillie","tag-stars","tag-statement","tag-struck-a-teammate","tag-such-a-young-group","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans","tag-the-afternoon","tag-the-agreed-three-the-garfield-hotel","tag-the-buttocks","tag-the-centre","tag-the-claim","tag-the-club","tag-the-conduct","tag-the-hope","tag-the-incident","tag-the-media","tag-the-midfielder","tag-the-only-patrons","tag-the-players","tag-the-pub","tag-the-richmond-football-club","tag-the-statement","tag-the-swans","tag-the-swans-incident","tag-the-sydney-swans","tag-the-tigers","tag-the-venue","tag-the-video","tag-the-way","tag-their-afternoon","tag-their-arrival","tag-their-behaviour","tag-their-embarrassment","tag-their-players","tag-this-morning","tag-three-times","tag-today","tag-two-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79885","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=79885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}