Crows ban member as Port Adelaide strongly condemns racist comments targeting ruckman Paddy Ryder online

Adelaide has suspended one of its members “indefinitely” after the person made racist comments online towards Port Adelaide ruckman Paddy Ryder in the latest shocking online attack.

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Adelaide has suspended one of its members “indefinitely” after the person made racist comments towards Port Adelaide ruckman Paddy Ryder in the latest shocking online attack.

The comments were in reply to a Fox Footy Facebook post about the Power’s stunning win over West Coast on Friday night which included a picture of Ryder celebrating a goal.

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An account under the name of Peter Bullen replied with a picture of three bananas and another account under the name of Matt Cooper posted a picture of a banana stand.

AFL Players’ Association boss Paul Marsh took a screenshot of the abuse and posted it on Twitter with the words:

“Proud moment: the way Paddy Ryder played in Port’s huge win. Not a proud moment: trolls who continue to vilify our Indigenous players. You’re both a disgrace and have been reported,” Marsh wrote on Twitter.

One of the accounts appeared to include a Crows logo on their Facebook profile photo and Adelaide confirmed it was investigating whether the account belonged to a member.

Just before midday on Saturday the Crows released a statement confirming one of the online trolls was a three-game member.

“The Adelaide Football Club has been made aware a 3-Game member racially vilified Port Adelaide’s Paddy Ryder via social media on Friday night,” the Crows’ statement said.

“This person’s membership has been suspended indefinitely and all of their membership rights have been revoked. The club considers racial vilification to be abhorrent and disgusting, and racism has no place in our society.

“Our organisation has zero tolerance to this type of behaviour and will continue to work with industry stakeholders and community leaders to raise awareness and offer appropriate education.”

Crows coach Don Pyke spoke to the media on Saturday morning and described the comments as “intolerable” and “disgraceful”.

“All I can say is the people at our footy club will investigate that, it’s intolerable in our game and disgraceful it keeps happening and we want to stamp it out as quickly as we can,” Pyke said.

“The people at our game will follow up exactly the source of it and take appropriate action because it’s got to stop.

“Putting footy aside, it’s disappointing across the community to think that we still have people out there who feel that it’s their right to express those views which are clearly unacceptable.

“It’s got to stop.”

It is the latest in a series of racist taunts directed at Aboriginal players in the AFL this season after West Coast’s Liam Ryan and Adelaide’s Eddie Betts were also subjected to the vile comments online.

Paddy Ryder celebrates a goal in Port Adelaide’s win over West Coast in Perth. Picture: Will Russell.

Ryder is expected to speak to the media when Port Adelaide returns from Perth on Saturday.

Port Adelaide issued a statement which said racism “has no place in the AFL or our society more broadly”.

“It is divisive, hurtful and not welcome,” the statement said.

“The Port Adelaide Football Club is aware of a racist social media post directed at Paddy Ryder following last night’s game in Perth.

“Port Adelaide will support Paddy and its indigenous players in dealing with the impact of this cowardly and ignorant comment, but it is clear that the AFL and its member clubs must remain vigilant in coming together to eradicate this behaviour.

“Paddy and all Indigenous players across our competition deserve so much better.”