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SYDNEY Swans recruit Tyrone Leonardis has apologised for being part of two separate social media groups designed to defame club great Adam Goodes.
Just hours after the Swans took the Northern Knights midfielder with pick No.51 at Tuesday's NAB AFL Draft, it emerged that Leonardis had joined groups on Facebook created by critics of Goodes.
The dual-Brownlow medallist retired at the end of season 2015, his most trying in a glittering 372-game career, after opposition fans throughout the year continually booed him.
It forced Goodes to take a break from the club and miss the Swans' round 18 game against Adelaide at the SCG.
"I'm extremely sorry for my actions and it is something that I have already learnt a great deal from," he said on the club's website on Wednesday.
"I am grateful to have been selected by the Swans and I can't wait to get up to Sydney to start pre-season training."
A Swans official told AFL.com.au on Tuesday night they had been in contact with Leonardis, and the teenager was extremely remorseful over the incident, which has tarnished the biggest night of his short career.
They stressed that the Victorian had never taken part in any discussions, nor had he ever commented on the pages, but the incident has shown the new Swan the pitfalls of social media.
Leonardis apparently liked the pages last February.
Goodes retired from the AFL after a tumultuous final season during which fans booing the indigenous star became a major issue in the game.
The two-time Brownlow medallist is a revered figure at the club.
Leonardis' blunder came a year after Blaine Boekhorst had an awkward start to life as a Carlton player.
A few months earlier, Boekhorst had tweeted that either the entire Carlton team or then-coach Mick Malthouse had to go.
Malthouse laughed it off, Boekhorst was nicknamed "Tweet" and he went on to win Carlton's best first-year player award. And Malthouse was sacked mid-season.
During the 2015 season, the Swans called all Goodes booers 'racists'. Picture: AFL Media
Below: The Facebook pages Tyrone Leonardis has liked
