Geelong makes a huge call on future Mad Monday parties as the AFL breaks its silence on the club’s end-of-season function that went off the rails thanks to Bailey Smith

The Geelong Football Club has broken its silence after the club’s players found themselves in hot water following the antics that took place during its Mad Monday celebrations.

The club says future end-of-season functions will ‘not continue in this current form’, adding that it will be educating its players on ‘expectations and club and community standards’.

Earlier on Tuesday, AFL general manager Greg Swann explained that he ‘wasn’t thrilled’ by what took place during the club’s end-of-season function but added that the league would not punish the club for its players’ antics, and instead would leave Chris Scott’s side to ‘deal with it’.

Swann explained that club officials were also disappointed by the actions of their players, adding that the league felt Geelong were best placed to deal with the matter.

After their Grand Final loss by Brisbane on Saturday afternoon, members of the squad gathered at the Wharf Shed bar on the Geelong waterfront dressed in fancy dress outfits.

Bailey Smith arrived at the party dressed as Brad Pitt’s character, Tristan Ludlow, from the western movie ‘Legends of the Fall’. But the Cats midfielder, who placed third in this year’s Brownlow Medal race, was blasted after he had mocked respected footy journalist Caroline Wilson on social media.

The 24-year-old was also slammed online by former Eagles player Mitch Brown, who branded Smith a ‘homophobic loser’ after he appeared to make a reference to the film Brokeback Mountain on his Instagram.

Max Holmes arrived dressed as respected footy journalist Caroline Wilson and caught the ire of Channel Seven broadcaster Kane Cornes, who branded the players’ antics an ‘embarrassment’.

Geelong has now issued a public apology and noted that there was a ‘significant error of judgement’ among some of its players.

‘The Geelong Football Club sincerely apologises for the offence caused following our end of season gathering on Monday,’ a club statement read.

‘Certain costumes and associated social media posts were inappropriate and a significant error of judgment, and do not reflect our Team of All commitment.

‘The Club has decided future post-season events will not continue in this current form, and we will take this moment to further educate our people on expectations and Club and community standards.’

On Monday, Smith, wearing a cream cowboy hat and a white linen shirt, published several pictures of himself and other players. He posed for a snap with Holmes, 23, who was dressed as Channel 7 and The Age reporter Wilson, wearing a red-patterned dress and a black wig.

He captioned the image: ‘Caro has never looked better..’ He added a sweat droplets emoji, which can often have sexual connotations. Smith later deleted the Instagram story.

Smith later took to Instagram to publish a shot of him and Patrick Dangerfield, and made a reference to the film Brokeback Mountain.

‘Or Brokeback Mountain, depends on how ya look at it,’ he said, publishing an image of Dangerfield appearing to place his hand on the footy star’s stomach.

Smith added: ‘This is what losing a Granny does to ya. Alright, phone away now. Bye.’

Brown, who made history earlier this year after coming out as the AFL’s first known bisexual player, slammed Smith on Instagram over the caption.

‘Last time I checked, losing a Grand Final doesn’t make you gay, but being homophobic definitely makes you a loser,’ Brown said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Smith’s representatives and Geelong for comment.

AFL boss Swann, though, said the league were not pleased by the antics of the players.

It is the second time in the space of two seasons that a team has been thrust into the spotlight for its post-season celebrations, with GWS Giants being scrutinised last season for their Wacky Wednesday party.

Swann told members of the media on Tuesday afternoon: ‘Look, we have spoken to Geelong and had a chat to (chief executive) Steve Hocking,’ Swann said.

‘They’re actually dealing with it. We’ve always – well, certainly in my time – we think the clubs are the best people to deal with it, their players.

‘We’re not thrilled, obviously, with what happened – and nor are Geelong.

‘So they’re going to take some steps. I think there’ll be something coming out this afternoon around that.

‘And so we’ve pushed it down to them to deal with, so we’ve had some good chats to them about it.’

Swann said when the AFL checked in, Geelong had already been handling the situation and attempting to round up their players.

‘It’s hard to find people and they’ve all disappeared and they haven’t surfaced and things like that,’ he said.

‘So they’ve been doing a little bit of work in the background trying to sort that out.’

Ironically, Geelong aren’t the only team that will be changing the way it celebrates the end of the footy season, with GWS skipper Toby Greene having told 7News on Tuesday afternoon that the Giants had canned fancy dress for their end-of-season function.

Last year, six Giants players copped suspensions and seven more received fines, after certain members of the team dressed in distasteful and upsetting costumes during their now infamous Wacky Wednesday party.

Players also performed skits during the event, simulating the September 11 World Trade Centre attacks in New York, while another performed inappropriate acts on a sex doll.

But speaking on his side’s post-season party for 2025, Greene revealed the team had a ‘very quiet’ meet-up.

‘It was very low-key this year, we just had a catch-up all together and there was no dress-ups or anything like that,’ he explained to 7News.

‘I think it was just a given — it wasn’t really discussed,” the footy star, who was fined for a lack of leadership, said.

‘It was very low-key.’