Port Adelaide midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper will miss the Power's AFL clash with Essendon after being banned by the club for one game for breaking team rules.
The AFL and the club are investigating an incident involving Powell-Pepper at an Adelaide nightclub. A woman alleges he had put his hands up her skirt after Port's Saturday night win over Brisbane.
While that investigation was ongoing, Powell-Pepper was found to have broken team rules by staying out past the 2:00am curfew and drinking excessively.
Late on Wednesday, the club's leadership group, led by skipper Travis Boak, handed down the sanction.
Port veteran Brad Ebert, a member of the leadership group, was forced to defend the club's culture after the incident.
Powell-Pepper is the sixth Power player in the past two years to have been in trouble off the field, although two had been subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing.
"To say the culture is an issue, I really disagree with," Ebert said.
"We are a pretty strong group and we uphold a strong set of values and standards, so I really don't believe this is a cultural issue."
Ebert said players were allowed to have a few drinks but Powell-Pepper went beyond that.
"It was more the fact he was out pretty late and, as a group, we say by two o'clock, you should be making your way home," he said.
"As a group, we understand you can have a few drinks, but we try not to go overboard with that."
Port recruited Powell-Pepper as a first-round selection in the 2016 national draft and he had an immediate impact last season, finishing third in the Rising Star award.
Having played 25 senior games, he was in the team who beat Brisbane by five points on Saturday at Adelaide Oval.
