LANCE Collard's nine-week suspension for using homophobic language has been decreased to four weeks - two of which have been suspended - at the AFL Appeal Board on Thursday evening.

The Board, comprised of Chair Will Houghton KC, former player Stephen Jurica, and Georgina Coghlan KC, however dismissed the St Kilda forward's appeal against the charge of conduct unbecoming, meaning the charge stands but Collard has received a different sanction.

In a hearing that ran just shy of two hours, the Board considered the original suspension to be "manifestly excessive" given Collard's young age, Indigenous nature and difficult background, the fact the victim was not personally offended, the relative lesser seriousness compared to Collard's previous use of the slur, and the context of the game in which the incident occurred.

Two weeks of the four-week ban will be suspended for the remainder of the 2026 and the 2027 VFL and AFL seasons, and the ban is to be served in addition to Collard's existing two-week ban for a high hit in the same game.

The Board found there was evidence before the original Tribunal that a large penalty would "finish [Collard] off as a player of professional football".

While St Kilda's counsel Michael Borsky KC argued the original Tribunal had erred in accepting evidence from two Frankston players over Collard's evidence and that the use of homophobic language during a football game did not fall under the charge of conduct unbecoming, the Board rejected these claims and upheld the charge.

The Board found that there was plenty of acceptable evidence that the Tribunal used to be comfortably convinced Collard had said the offending phrase.

Last week, Collard was banned for nine weeks - two of which were suspended - after he was found to have called opponent Darby Hipwell a "f****t" in a VFL game against Frankston in March.

He faced an extraordinary AFL Disciplinary Tribunal hearing on April 9, with the Tribunal's deliberations extending into the next day before he was found to have said the slur.

The sanction was then handed down after another hearing on April 14, with St Kilda electing to appeal the decision.

The incident in question occurred during the third quarter of the March 27 match amid a melee that resulted from Collard collecting Frankston’s Jackson Voss with a swinging arm.

Collard, who previously served a six-match suspension for saying a homophobic slur in 2024, maintained he had said "maggot" and has denied using the slur throughout the various stages of the Tribunal process.