Giants footy boss responds to AFL’s Green reprimand for controversial podcast comments

GWS footy boss Jason McCartney has responded to the AFL handing Giants midfielder Tom Green an official reprimand for comments made on his ‘In The Green Room’ podcast.

The AFL announced the reprimand on Wednesday after Green made comments last week following his teammate Toby Bedford’s initial three-game suspension for a dangerous tackle on Richmond’s Tim Taranto.

Green’s comments came before the club got the ban overturned at the Appeals Board where he described the MRO and Tribunal a ‘disgrace’ and called them out for ‘ruining the game’.

As a result, the AFL found him breaching rule 19.18(c) for ‘unfair, unreasonable or excessive public criticism’.

McCartney admitted that Green got his comments wrong and did cross the line on occasion and was immediately remorseful once he realised his mistake.

“That was one we had last Friday when it came to light,” McCartney told SEN Afternoons.

“First and foremost, Tom’s an outstanding young man and he’s an extremely intelligent young man.

“He's part of our leadership group and obviously, the access to the players in the media now is more and more, and Tom is very good in this space.

“Obviously, he's got a podcast here with one of our media team members Jacob Gaynor and he had nine minutes on this topic, and for large portions of it, he articulated unbelievably well and was very passionate.

“But in that nine minutes, there were three or four things that did cross the line.

“He was very remorseful, he was very apologetic … he front-footed things with key people at the AFL.”

McCartney says that the Giants will use the Green misstep as a lesson as they toe the line between promoting the club and the game in Western Sydney while not entering any ‘no-go zones’.

“I just think it's a lesson for all our players and staff,” McCartney said.

“The obligations are there, but we still want people to find that balance and then I think predominantly Tom does that really well.

“But he missed the mark here and he gets a rap over the knuckles.

“We've discussed it internally with players and staff around, ‘Get out there, sell the club, sell the game, but you do need to be careful’.

“There's a couple of no-go zones.”

Green was also sent a please explain from the AFL as part of his reprimand.