Adelaide Crows investigate incident with Bulldogs Easton Wood
EASTON Wood has responded after he was touched on the backside by an Adelaide fan on Friday night, saying he would like to be able to go to work and not ‘get slapped on the arse by a complete stranger.’
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WESTERN Bulldogs skipper Easton Wood has responded after he was “slapped” on the backside by an Adelaide fan on Friday night.
The premiership player said he wasn’t expecting the contact which came from over the fence and was clearly disappointed it was allowed to occur.
“I didn’t say anything (to the fan),” Wood said on Channel 7.
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“I certainly wasn’t hurt or anything like that. I was a bit surprised. My preference would be to be able to go to work and not get slapped on the arse by a complete stranger.
“I’ll be fine and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.”
The Adelaide Crows are investigating the incident.
Footage showed a fan reaching over the barrier and touching Wood, who quickly turned back to the crowd to see who touched him.
The fan was wearing a Crows member lanyard.
An Adelaide Crows spokesman would not be drawn on repercussions the young man would face and said he first needed to be identified.
“The club is investigating in conjunction with the stadium’s management authority,” a spokesman told the Sunday Herald Sun.
Legends of the game have united in their disappointment at the incident.
Former St Kilda star Nick Riewoldt said nothing good came of interactions like this.
“It wasn’t violent, but we can’t expect the players to put up with that,” Riewoldt said.
“They’re in their workplace and they shouldn’t expect to be touched.”
Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall said there should be “zero tolerance” for crowd members touching players during games.
“Even though there’s nothing untoward say, if you allow that, it only takes one player to be hit a little bit too hard and all of a sudden he goes back at the person in the crowd and then it’s out of hand,” Dunstall told Fox Sport.
“There’s got to be zero tolerance.”
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire echoed the sentiment.
“If you lean over, you should be thrown immediately out of the ground,” he said.
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