AFL needs to come down hard on McGuire, Brayshaw, Frawley or rhetoric about ending violence against women just empty words
THE AFL needs to come down hard on McGuire, Brayshaw and Frawley or their rhetoric about ending violence against women is just empty words, writes Susie O’Brien.
Opinion
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HOW disgraceful that two male AFL club presidents and a male former AFL coach bonded together last week by making jokes about drowning a female journalist.
I’m not surprised an almighty furore has exploded over comments made by Collingwood president Eddie McGuire last Monday.
He said he would pay $50,000 to see The Age football writer Caroline Wilson stay under a pool of iced water.
RELATED: AFL SLAMS CLUB BOSSES OVER CARO DROWNING JOKE
He said he’d charge an extra $10,000 for “everyone to stand around the outside and bomb her”.
Danny Frawley, an ex-Richmond coach, then said Wilson should be held under: “I’ll actually jump in and make sure she doesn’t (come up) ... I’ll hold her under, Ed”.
The AFL has just added a female investigator to its integrity team. Here’s her first job: hold these bullies to account.
Under pressure, Eddie McGuire has apologised this morning.
“I have been really disappointed that these comments have led to these feelings from people,” McGuire said on Triple M.
“I apologise and retract them in the spirit of what we’re trying to achieve, and that is to look after women and children in our community.”
But that’s not an apology. He is really saying that he has been disappointed in the reaction to the comments rather than taking responsibility for the comments themselves.
He isn’t retracting them because they’re sexist, dangerous or wrong. He isn’t retracting them because Wilson said they “crossed the line”.
He isn’t retracting them because they fuel the attitudes that leads to violence against women.
He’s merely retracted them because the comments “led to these feelings from people”.
Well, I am one of these people and I say it’s not good enough
Let’s put this nasty incident into some perspective.
The comments were also made in the same week as the AFL signed up to Our Watch, a commitment to ending violence against women.
It was also the same week the league unveiled the first teams for the AFL women’s league.
It was also the same week a White Ribbon game was played between Geelong and the Western Bulldogs.
So the AFL must now take strong action against the men making these comments.
An example must be made.
No doubt the men involved — McGuire, North Melbourne president James Brayshaw and Frawley — will say they were just joking.
But violence against women is never a laughing matter.
Caroline Wilson is a well-respected football writer, but she’s never been part of the football boys’ club.
No doubt she was reminded of this when Sam Newman and other neanderthals from The Footy Show put her head on a bikini model.
She got another reminder this week.
Wilson has never been simpering and passive like some women in male-dominated industries who are allowed access because they are no threat to the men around them.
Wilson gives as good as she gets at every turn, and stands up for her views.
It wins her respect, but it doesn’t win her friends, as this incident illustrates.
Frawley has already tried to write his comments off as a “poor attempt at humour” that “didn’t go down that way”.
Clearly, he’s insinuating that the problem is not with his so-called joke, but the reaction to it.
It’s not really an apology at all, and I hope McGuire and Brayshaw do a better job of it when they are held to account.
Time and again we see women being taken down a peg or two by the blokes who think they’re a bit too full of themselves.
Men rarely get the same treatment.
AFL chief Gillon McLachlan is right to say that the language used could be seen to tolerate violence against women and would not be tolerated.
So what is he going to do about it?
Three of its senior male statesmen bonded over a joke about drowning a female who works in their industry.
They should be fined, with the money going to Safe Steps or White Ribbon or another anti-violence charity.
McLachlan needs to match his words with strong action, otherwise this sort of thing will keep on happening.
Whether it is former Billy Brownless calling an innocent female passer-by a stripper in front of a roomful of people, or Collingwood players sending naked selfies, or Dustin Martin allegedly threatening a woman in a restaurant with chopsticks, surely enough is enough.
The AFL needs to fine and reprimand McGruire, Brayshaw and Frawley in order to send a strong message that this sort of so-called joke will not be tolerated.
Otherwise, all of the AFL’s rhetoric about ending violence against women is just empty words.
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