Nova Peris hits out at Craig Hutchison over AFL vaccine dispute comments

Australian sporting icon Nova Peris wasn’t impressed with Craig Hutchison when he spoke about the vaccine drama the AFL found itself in.

Nova Peris has taken aim at comments from Craig Hutchison.

Australian sporting icon Nova Peris has taken aim at Footy Classified host Craig Hutchison for suggesting some of the AFL’s Indigenous players “inflamed” a vaccine conflict by speaking out publicly over the weekend.

Club doctors were informed via an email from the league that it was compulsory for Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander players to receive a pneumococcal vaccination before entering Queensland, despite their being no official direction for people in the AFL players’ age bracket.

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The AFL has since apologised for a communication breakdown in not letting the league’s 87 Indigenous players and the AFL Players’ Association that the vaccination was not mandatory, but Hutchison said the issue becoming public didn’t help the situation.

“I really feel for the Indigenous players because it was not well communicated to them by the medicos, it was miscommunicated to them,” Hutchison said on Channel 9.

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“I think it’s a very complicated issue where the absolute best support must be given, (but) I didn’t think it was in the interests of the players to put that out as a press release on Saturday and inflame the issue a little bit further,” Hutchison said.

“I didn’t think that was necessary.”

Veteran AFL reporter Caroline Wilson, a panellist on Footy Classified, responded: “What, so you cover it up? Why would you cover it up?”

Peris, the first Indigenous Australian to win an Olympic gold medal, told the Herald Sun Hutchison’s comments were “a typical response considering how previous race issues have been dealt with by privileged white men in the media.”

Wow ⁦@AFL⁩ this seems to be vaccine racism! Are there Human Rights breaches here? Who in the ⁦#AFL mandated this vaccine whilst there’s a national shortage of supply?Why only Aboriginal players 🤷🏾‍♀️ who aren’t even in the critical criteria category? https://t.co/cbMejaHNFy

— Nova Peris OAM OLY (@NovaPeris) July 18, 2020

“This isn’t just a medical blunder. This is a race issue,” she said.

“I applaud Caroline Wilson for taking this seriously and not letting Craig Hutchison sweep it under the carpet like he appeared to want to do on the Footy Classified program.

“Once again we are being told to shut up. It is nowhere near good enough.

“Hutchison wanted to downplay it and move on. Why are we Aboriginal people always told how we should feel?”

Originally published as Nova Peris hits out at Craig Hutchison over AFL vaccine dispute comments