Here we are again, treading the same tired territory as the cult of forgetfulness bellows out a familiar refrain towards another pre-eminent and once-in-a-generation athlete.
It has been almost exactly 10 years since Adam Goodes was abused by a young Collingwood fan at the MCG, sparking off a lamentable chain of events that resulted in him being hounded out of the game. While some would argue that we have come full circle, the attentive eye and ear would say that the broader culture has been idling at a standstill.
Although it’s probably a combination of both, only Australian sport could turn on their own without a plausible explanation like Collingwood supporters turned on Lance Franklin over the weekend. It’s as much of a travesty as it is a tragedy, but it is uniquely Australian.
Despite the meritless rationalising and mindless whataboutery, it’s hard to fathom that a human highlight reel who has redrawn the boundaries of possibility could be subject to that level of malice on the same stage where he has dazzled and mesmerised for the last 18 years.
But this isn’t about Franklin, it’s about the ticking time bomb of Black excellence in the purview of the white gaze. No matter how great a player is or how much joy they bring to the masses, there will forever be a target on a Black player’s back and a willing audience ready to zero in.
It’s about the internalised hatred that men – who are the dominant force in shaping and sustaining AFL culture – have for themselves and each other. The Great Southern and Ponsford Stands merely provide a haven for the boozed up, brittle and broken to project their own self-hatred and insecurities on to others.
It’s about the AFL’s indifference and neglect. For years, they’ve sat on the fence instead of courting crowd behaviour and dragged their feet on stamping out racial abuse within the game. We saw it during the Goodes saga. The league’s historical inaction has only oxygenated an already raging fire.
It’s also about a vanilla, sterile and anti-intellectual media class that will create, inflate or draw into focus the targets on players’ backs. Like a pack of hyenas swarming a carcass, and aided by a clickbait profit model, their substanceless analysis only creates a self-sustaining, hostile and inflammatory vortex.
On Monday night’s Footy Classified, Matthew Lloyd went into bat for booing, saying that “we have to be careful we’re not getting that soft as a society”. Using Lloyd’s rationale, toughness resides with the faceless and nameless, cowards who use their peers as camouflage, while softness resides with those being abused and vilified.
Lloyd’s comments also reveal the static and antique mindset that he and many past players hold. Because his generation was subjected to abuse, the belief is that every generation after them should be too.
In order to justify the treatment that Franklin received, others tried to draw false equivalences with the vile booing that Jason Horne-Francis has received almost every week since seeking a trade to Port Adelaide. For the record, that booing is also imbecilic. Horne-Francis merely changed employers and moved workplaces – which is a very normal and mundane action the overwhelming majority of us do throughout our lives.
The endless slew of commentary and false equivalents also illustrate the distorted expectations and inflated beliefs that huge swathes of the football world hold. We are not in ancient Rome and the MCG isn’t the Colosseum.
Yes, AFL is one of the greatest games in the world and a lifeblood for so many people – especially Indigenous communities. But at its stripped back essence, it’s just a game and a workplace. Purchasing a ticket grants you access to watch the players perform. It doesn’t equate to ownership, nor is it a licence to vilify and abuse them.
The home-ground advantage and broader fan participation is to be protected. We don’t have to look too far back in the rear view to remember the empty stadiums and ghost town atmosphere throughout the Covid era. But if becoming the 19th player requires a supporter base to hound the only Indigenous player on the opposition team without merit or reason, then something is not being done right.
Irrespective of initial intent, it is about impact. “We have been here before and sadly it seems some people have not learned from the past,” the Swans statement read earlier this week. But there is still a chance to not allow the situation to snowball, as it has done in the past. No good can come from sitting back and allowing this to play out on the off-chance it was a one-off incident.
To Collingwood’s credit, their unanimous and unambiguous response is to be heralded. The same goes for the Swans. And it’s incumbent on other clubs to express the same level of conviction and care in the coming weeks. It’s on everyone to do better; to not let history rhyme or repeat.
Should all responsible parties abstain from their collective responsibilities and enable this behaviour to sustain, I shudder to think what the inevitable consequences are.
