The AFL Players Association has labelled the decision to stand down Geelong young gun Tanner Bruhn for all of 2025 as “premature and disproportionate” after rape charges against him were dropped on Tuesday.

Bruhn, who has played 66 games with GWS and the Cats, missed the entire 2025 season after being charged in February in relation to the alleged 2023 incident.

His identity had been suppressed and he was listed by Geelong as having a finger injury, but the AFL confirmed he had been stood down.

But the charges against Bruhn, 23, and his co-accused Patrick Sinnott were dropped after a key witness admitted to lying .

The Office of Public Prosecutions was forced to withdraw the case and in court Bruhn’s barrister Dermot Dann, KC, said the case “represented a horrible stain on the crim

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