Tyrendarra Club Bans Sex Offender After Community Backlash
In a small south-west Victorian community where the local football-netball club sits at the heart of weekend life, Tyrendarra has been forced into a brutal reckoning.
The club has now banned convicted sex offender James Williams, days after it emerged he had been welcomed back into the fold following a stint in jail for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl on a post-season trip.
The reversal came after intense public outrage and an ABC investigation that laid bare how Williams, jailed over an assault on a teenage girl at a concert in Adelaide in 2022, had been allowed to return to the club last year.
On Wednesday, the Tyrendarra Football Netball Club committee issued a stark admission: it got it wrong.
“We are sorry,” the committee said in a statement, which did not name Williams but clearly referred to the decision to readmit him.
“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 has now been kicked out of the club. The ABC understands that decision followed the wave of condemnation triggered by its reporting.
Sponsors walk, trust erodes
The fallout has already bitten hard. The club has lost sponsors, including local MP Roma Britnell, as anger grew over how a community organisation so heavily centred on junior sport had handled the situation.
The club acknowledged that trust had been badly damaged.
“We also acknowledge those who have spoken about how this was handled, and the trust we have lost with them,” the statement read.
The apology was posted on social media on Wednesday afternoon, just hours before a planned face-to-face meeting with members. An earlier meeting set for Tuesday had to be abandoned after the location was shared online, raising concerns about safety and crowd management.
Victim finally front of mind
In its statement, the club explicitly recognised the harm done to Williams’s victim — the then 15-year-old girl he sexually assaulted in 2022.
It also tried to reach beyond the walls of the clubrooms.
“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 words mark a sharp shift from the club’s earlier stance. During the ABC’s investigation, Tyrendarra officials said they had followed a “careful process” before allowing Williams to return, including seeking expert advice and consulting widely across the club. When pressed by the ABC to explain what that process involved, the club did not respond.
That silence has now given way to contrition — and a promise of change.
Code of conduct overhaul
The committee has committed to introducing a binding code of conduct covering players, coaches, officials and volunteers, with “clear grounds for removal if breached, on or off the field”.
It is a direct acknowledgment that the bar must be higher for those representing a club that prides itself on being a safe place for children and families.
“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.
In Tyrendarra, where football and netball often define the rhythm of winter, that judgment has already begun — and it will not be shaped by words alone.
