St Kilda have sacked midfielder Andrew Lovett just 24 hours after he was charged by police over rape allegations.
The Saints are currently fourth favourites to win the NAB Cup with Sportsbet.com.au pricing them at 7.00, while the same company have them at 4.25 to win the AFL competition.
Vice president of St Kilda Ross Levine revealed the club’s decision was due to multiple breaches of his three-year contract and does not just relate this latest charge.
Levine said: “I have to say we've already had feedback that it has hurt our reputation.
"We'd like to think we can rise above it and that if it had continued on beyond this it would have continued to get worse.
"We've got members, we've got sponsors, we've got players - our general brand in the market place, and it's association unfortunately with someone who's been charged - innocent until proven guilty but charged, does unfortunately damage our reputation."
The club’s chief executive Michael Nettleford has backed the decision, he added: “During Andrew's short tenure with the club, on a number of occasions he engaged in actions that were failures to comply with our standards of expected behavioral conduct.
"These failures related to his training commitments and a failure to contact club officials in a situation where he should have done so. We simply could not ignore such breaches."
Lovett will appear in court on Friday charged with raping a woman in Port Melbourne on Christmas Eve and the AFL have revealed they will not intervene in the club’s decision to sack the player.