Crows star Erin Phillips throws her support behind Carlton’s Tayla Harris, calls for more to stop trolls

The AFL has declared war on trolls after a stunning photo of Carlton star Tayla Harris was targeted with ugly online abuse. Crows co-captain Erin Phillips also has weighed in on the controversy.

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The AFL has declared war on trolls after a stunning photo of Carlton superstar Tayla Harris in full flight became fodder for ugly online abuse.

The hunt for those responsible for the cruel invective is set to become a “watershed moment” for Australian sport, as some of the biggest names in football, entertainment and politics have called for tighter online controls to combat abuse.

AFL integrity unit investigators are to join forces with Channel 7’s social media platforms in an attempt to identify the perpetrators, who could be banned from games and stripped of their club memberships.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said the abuse wasn’t simply a problem for the league’s broadcast partner.

“It’s more a challenge with the platform, social media, because this is not an isolated incident. There’s negativity in lots of aspects of our game and the community, but when it’s unacceptable commentary, more and more people are calling that out, and that is what has happened here,” he said.

Crows co-captain Erin Phillips has thrown her support behind her fellow All-Australian AFLW player, in the wake of the photograph controversy.

Phillips said while it was disappointing that online trolls attacked a magnificent photo of Carlton’s star forward kicking for goal — which then led to Channel 7 AFL removing the photo from social media — she praised the athleticism of the 2016 marquee signing.

“What a great photo, first of all and what an unbelievable athlete she is,” Phillips said.

“I think out of this disappointing incident, it’s become something that’s empowered her and is showing Australia that it’s not acceptable to troll and put people down and another thing is look how fantastic women’s sport is and Tayla is a part of that.

We're sorry. Removing the photo sent the wrong message.

Many of the comments made on the post were reprehensible & we'll work harder to ban trolls from our pages.

Our intention was to highlight @taylaharriss incredible athleticism & we'll continue to celebrate women's footy. pic.twitter.com/p24Ll08LRC

— 7AFL (@7AFL) March 19, 2019

Here’s a pic of me at work... think about this before your derogatory comments, animals. pic.twitter.com/68aBVVbTTj

— Tayla Harris (@taylaharriss) March 19, 2019

“I think the greatest thing is the response from what happened is everyone has got behind her and supported her and I think that’s fantastic.”

But Phillips said more needed to be done to make trolls accountable for their negative comments, including ensuring that people could no longer hider behind anonymity online and suggested that perhaps a person’s driver’s licence could be attached to their profile.

“There’s a lot of trolls who get away with things and it shouldn’t be allowed and it’s not right,” Phillips said.

The photo of Tayla Harris which Channel 7 removed from its website after comments from trolls. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Media

“I would love to see some accountability on Twitter. It would be interesting to see your actual profile (where) everything that was correct about you was attached to your Twitter and then see how many negative comments they make.”

Phillips teammate Sarah Perkins was also subjected to negative online remarks earlier this year, when a goal celebration between Perkins and midfielder Anne Hatchard went awry.

“That’s unfortunately the world we live in today,” she said.

“We do have discussions as a team around social media and we make sure that we understand it’s a platform that can be fantastic, but it’s also a platform that can be quite damaging as well.

“I think the girls in our team, have a really good grip and understanding of what it is and to not listen to the negative and keep driving the positive messages that we do get because we get more positive messages than we do negative.”

Both Phillips and Harris will suit up for preliminary finals this weekend, with Harris’s Blues taking on Fremantle on Saturday afternoon, while the Crows play Geelong at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

Originally published as Crows star Erin Phillips throws her support behind Carlton’s Tayla Harris, calls for more to stop trolls