Crows players united as ugly social media trolling rears its head during opening round of AFLW season
Dual Crows premiership players Ebony Marinoff and Courtney Cramey have revealed how they deal with social media trolls after the AFLW was subjected to online vitriol during its opening round on the weekend.
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AFLW stars Courtney Cramey and Ebony Marinoff say they pay no attention to what the negative social media trolls have to say about their competition.
As the fourth instalment of the women’s league commenced on Friday, when Carlton defeated Richmond, the trolls came out, posting comments online including: “Who is washing hubby’s shirt for work, girls?”
And: “If THAT is the standard for paying players and games being shown on TV then when are Div 3 U15 games going to be (televised)?”
Speaking on The Advertiser’s new women’s football podcast CJ and the Noff, the two top Crows players said they did their best not to read or listen to the comments and were instead focused on how they could improve the competition.
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Marinoff said her Adelaide teammates were encouraged not to follow the online footy websites that attracted such negative vitriol.
“It’s disappointing that these things are said, but I want our game to get better … as players we ask ourselves ‘how can we make the game better?’ to potentially stop the trolls, because if we play better and the product is better we cannot give them the chance to have an opinion,” she said.
Marinoff added footballers were taught not to retaliate to negative comments and Cramey agreed it was the right way to deal with it.
“The girls are taught not to get wrapped up in looking at comments, because you can just get lost in the social media world,” Cramey said.
“Reality is that we rock up to training and we’ve got a job to do.
“We get taught around how to manage those things off-field and that engaging with (trolls) can be quite distracting at times.
“We’re all pretty good down at the club around that.
“But that’s not to say that you might see something that you don’t want to see and you’ve read it and it’s all too late.
“We have a lot of support around the club in how we manage that.”
Former Richmond player and Glenelg premiership forward Liam McBean spoke about his disgust regarding the comments on his Twitter page.
“Some of the male commentary on social media towards the AFLW is so embarrassing,” he said.
“Imagine how sad your life must be …”
Cramey said AFLW football was here to stay and that the trolls who didn’t like AFLW should stop comparing with the women’s game with the men’s version.
“I think there are still a lot of people out there who compare us against the men’s … we are our own product and we are unique in how we go about playing footy,” she said.
“My personal opinion is that I don’t give (them) air.
“We can ban (poorly behaved) people from stadiums, but it’s a lot harder with those who hide behind a device or a computer screen.
“Often people who are making these negative comments probably have no idea what’s going on inside the four walls of the club about what we’re trying to achieve.
“I think it’s uneducated people putting their opinion forward.
“This game’s here to stay and it will continue to grow and get better in time.”
* Listen to CJ and the Noff: A women’s football podcast on adelaidenow.com.au, ACAST, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.