Tyrendarra Club Bans Sex Offender and Issues Apology
The Tyrendarra Football Netball Club has moved to ban convicted sex offender James Williams and publicly admit it was wrong to welcome him back, as the small south‑west Victorian club reels from a furious community response and the loss of key sponsors.
The club, under intense scrutiny after an ABC investigation revealed Williams had been allowed to return following a jail term, released a blunt statement on Wednesday conceding it had failed its own people.
“We are sorry,” the committee said in the statement, which did not name Williams but clearly referred to his case. “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.”
Williams had been jailed for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl during a post-season football trip, attacking her at a concert in Adelaide in 2022. Despite that conviction, he was permitted to rejoin Tyrendarra last year. The ABC understands he has now been kicked out of the club in the wake of the media reporting.
Pressure finally told.
Sponsors walked, including south-west Victorian MP Roma Britnell. Parents and community members voiced anger and disbelief. The club’s reputation, carefully built around junior sport and small-town ties, suddenly looked fragile.
Victim and community acknowledged
In its statement, Tyrendarra directly acknowledged the harm done to Williams’s victim, who was 15 at the time of the assault.
The club also widened its apology beyond the immediate incident.
“To anyone in our community affected by this episode and its coverage, we are sorry for the distress it has caused,” the statement read.
The apology was posted on social media on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of a face-to-face meeting with some members. An earlier meeting scheduled for Tuesday had been abandoned after the venue details were shared online, heightening tensions around the already volatile issue.
Trust, once lost, is hard to reclaim. The club knows it.
Rebuilding from a self-inflicted wound
Tyrendarra insists it did not act rashly when it first allowed Williams to return. The committee said it had followed a “careful process”, sought expert advice and consulted widely within the club before making its decision.
Yet when the ABC asked what that process involved, the club did not respond. That silence only deepened the sense of unease.
Now, the committee is promising concrete change. It has committed to introducing a binding code of conduct for players, coaches, officials and volunteers, with “clear grounds for removal if breached, on or off the field”.
It is a significant step for a community club, and a direct response to the anger of those who felt their safety and values had been sidelined.
“We also acknowledge those who have spoken about how this was handled, and the trust we have lost with them,” the statement said. “We do not expect these commitments to be taken on trust alone. We intend to be judged on what we do from here.”
The games will go on at Tyrendarra. The question now is whether the community will stand on the boundary line with the same faith it once had in the colours.
