It’s been a rough year on the PR front for the AFL. The St Kilda Schoolgirl/Ricky Nixon saga broke after the Grand Final and lasted most of a long Melbournian summer. It was pretty bad, perhaps one of the worst ‘bad publicity’ stories in the history of Australian sport. And just when it seemed that the league’s public image couldn't get any worse, along comes a race-fuelled conflagration.
There’ve been three separate incidents of on-field sledging that’s crossed into the dangerous and despicable area of racism. Three incidents in as many months in a league that has been lauded internationally for it’s strong anti-racism programs is nothing short of a disaster. If ever there’s been a season where the AFL needs everyone in the media to focus on the on-field product, which is arguably as good as it’s ever been, it’s this year after the mess we’ve endured with Ricky Nixon and co through summer and into the heart of the season. Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened that way, and now the AFL is embroiled in a new racial scandal.
Let’s review the incidents. First it was Lance Franklin being yelled at from the bleachers by an ignorant fan in Tasmania, then the North Melbourne recruit Majak Daw, a Sudanese ruckman suffered similar treatment while playing in the VFL in May. Now, the news that Bulldog recruit Justin Sherman has been suspended four weeks for a racist sledge during his team’s win against the Gold Coast Suns over the weekend.
For the record, Sherman, a former Brisbane Lions player, becomes the first player since Peter Everitt to be suspended for abusing Melbourne’s Scott Chisholm during the 1999 season. The then-St Kilda Saint was deservedly handed a 4-game suspension, but it would be horribly naive of us to not think – assume, given comments from Adam Goodes on the subject, a few words to describe the racial sledge he was the recipient of a few years earlier – that there haven't been at least a handful of other cases since then that have been mediated off the record and in secret, a shame in of itself.
I digress; back to Sherman. Aside from spending four weeks in the VFL where I hope he will take a good, hard look at himself, the Bulldog will donate $5,000 to a charity chosen by the Suns and attend some form of education program. Apparently these sorts of program are necessary. Sill me, I just thought it was good, common sense that you never, ever attacked a guy’s heritage, especially not in the current climate, after two previous high-profile incidents. But no, you have to send ignorant football players to a class to teach them that it’s wrong. Really?
There’s that saying about a guy being a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and I think it applies well to Justin Sherman. It continues to amaze that players go down this road during their on-field banter. Sledging is a part of the game – it happens on the field and in the stands – and it’s something that players have to deal with, like they deal with morning-after recovery sessions in the cold ocean, but there’s a difference between taking a shot at a guy’s girlfriend or his kicking ability and his racial heritage. That sort of thing is not on. This isn't the 1930s or 1940s. We’re in an age of multicultural responsibility. Justin Sherman and others have set the league back many years with their stupid decisions.
In my mind, racially vilifying a guy is the most reprehensible thing a guy can do on the football field, worse, even, than a king hit behind the play or a gouge. I wish I knew what the guy was thinking when he thought it would be okay to go down that path. Of all the possible sledges you could pull out, why does someone insult a rival player’s race/heritage. It boggles the mind.
Adrian Anderson, the AFL’s Operations Manager, was incredulous during his press conference yesterday. “It does beggar belief a player in this day and age could racially vilify an opponent, and I hope to never see it again,” Anderson said before fielding tough questions from the media.
Well, that makes two of us, Adrian. Australia is known around the world as a proud multicultural nation. This is the sort of situation that’ll garner negative press in all parts of the world, and, beyond the world of football, it paints our nation in a very bad light. You have to believe that Anderson and his boss, Andrew Demetriou, must be fuming. Just when they thought it couldn't get worse...it went and got worse.
Four weeks isn't enough, for mine. I normally mostly agree with what the AFL does with regard to suspensions and such, but a month on AFL sidelines, while getting to play VFL football, isn't enough. Not nearly enough. So far as I’m concerned, if you’re found to be guilty of racially vilifying an opposition player, you should be suspended for the rest of the season and not be allowed to have any contact with a club or it’s feeder VFL team.
Similarly, any fan found guilty of yelling something over the fence, as happened with Buddy Franklin in Launceston, should be banned for a season from attending any AFL-sanctioned event.
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