Tyrendarra Football Netball Club Bans Convicted Sex Offender
The Tyrendarra Football Netball Club has moved to ban convicted sex offender James Williams, admitting it was wrong to welcome him back into the fold after his release from jail.
The south-west Victorian club has been under fierce scrutiny since an ABC investigation revealed Williams was allowed to return last year, despite serving time for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl on a post-season football trip.
On Wednesday, the club’s committee issued a public apology, conceding its judgment had failed its own community.
“We are sorry,” the statement read, without naming Williams but clearly referring to the case at the centre of the storm.
The ABC understands Williams was removed from the club following the media coverage.
“We accept we did not give enough weight to what our community rightly expects of a Club built around children, and those we let down deserve a straightforward apology,” the committee said.
The club also acknowledged the anger and hurt voiced by members and locals.
“We also acknowledge those who have spoken about how this was handled, and the trust we have lost with them.”
The apology was posted on social media on Wednesday afternoon ahead of a planned face-to-face meeting with some members. An earlier meeting, set for Tuesday, was abandoned after its location was circulated online, heightening tensions around an already fraught situation.
Recognising the victim
In its statement, Tyrendarra directly recognised the harm done to Williams’s victim, a 15-year-old girl sexually assaulted by him at a concert in Adelaide in 2022.
The club extended its apology beyond the immediate families involved.
“To anyone in our community affected by this episode and its coverage, we are sorry for the distress it has caused,” the committee said.
The fallout has already bitten hard. Sponsors have walked away, including south-west Victorian MP Roma Britnell, who withdrew her support as pressure mounted on the club’s leadership.
Club process under the microscope
Under fire for how Williams was allowed to return in the first place, the club maintained it had gone through what it described as a “careful process”, saying it had sought expert advice and consulted widely within the organisation before clearing him to come back.
During its investigation, the ABC asked the club to detail what that process involved and what safeguards, if any, were put in place. The club did not respond to those questions.
Now, the committee is promising structural change.
It has committed to introducing a binding code of conduct covering players, coaches, officials and volunteers, with explicit grounds for removal for breaches both on and off the field.
“We do not expect these commitments to be taken on trust alone. We intend to be judged on what we do from here,” the statement concluded.
For a small community club built around families and junior sport, that judgment has already begun.
