AFL Players Association boss Paul Marsh calls for respect in wake of another racist social media post
After yet another vile racist attack against a young AFL star, the players union has called for stronger action against perpetrators, vowing to continue calling out those who use social media to vilify players.
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AFL Players Association boss Paul Marsh has labelled another racist attack on one of the game’s young stars as “garbage” and says the players will continue to take a strong stance against it.
Emerging West Coast forward Jarrod Cameron, the younger brother of All-Australian Lion Charlie Cameron, was the target of a vile racist message, which he shared on one of his social media channels.
Upon sharing the message, 19-year-old Cameron wrote: “When will it stop?”
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Marsh said the latest attack had been reported to the AFL and said the players, and the wider community, deserved better.
“(It’s) another really disappointing attack on an AFL player on social media. As we’ve been doing for the last 12 months, we’ll continue to take a stance on this,” Marsh said.
“I think our players and the general community deserve better, it’s just garbage.
“We’ll continue to do that, we’ve reported it to the AFL, they continue to investigate these instances and where possible will take action.”
The club today issued a statement decrying the racist attack.
“The West Coast Eagles Football Club is appalled and bewildered by the racist attack on young forward Jarrod Cameron — the latest abhorrent and unacceptable act on social media.
“Clearly, as a society, we have a lot of work to do to eradicate these assaults on our indigenous players — as well as other racist attitudes — and we must continue to educate fellow Australians on community expectations.
These hurtful insults cannot continue and our club will do all within its power to bring this behaviour to an end.”
The attack on Cameron comes on the back of numerous social media attacks on the game’s indigenous stars in recent years.
In February last year, Adelaide and Carlton great Eddie Betts was on the end of racial abuse.
A week later North Melbourne big man Majak Daw was the subject of a racist slur, before Richmond suspended a club member for racially vilifying West Coast’s Liam Ryan.
Marsh said he would like to see stronger action taken against abusers on social media, but the issue remained identifying them.
“We don’t want these people in our game and where we’ve been able to identify them we have been able to do that,” Marsh said.
“We’d like to see stronger action at some point. I think there is a wave here of support for the players that are being vilified and it’s not just racism either, it’s a whole lot of other things.
“But I think we’ve still got a bit of a way to go, this is a really complex issue though is to how you identify the people that are at the end of these and often you can’t. So until you can do that it’s actually very hard to take action.
“I think one of the positives out of all this is it is helping educate and I think more and more people are seeing this stuff for what it is.”
Racism is never ok. We strongly support our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander AFL and AFLW players and continue to work with social media platforms to address this racial abuse. https://t.co/RtT16U1uLz
— AFL House (@AFL_House) January 8, 2020
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FOCUS ON MENTAL HEALTH
—Rebecca Williams
AFLPA board member Easton Wood says mental health remains the biggest issue for players and the game as it heads into a new decade.
Wood lauded the way the conversation around mental health in the game had opened up, but said there was still plenty of room to grow.
“The number one issue always is and keeps coming up for the last number of years is the mental health piece,” Wood said at the AFLPA’s directors and delegates conference.
“We have been making fantastic strides the last few years and we’ve seen it come from strength to strength and even the way it is reported now in the media and how the conversation around mental health has changed.
“Now we are championing stories of people coming up and speaking out, but obviously there is room to grow and that’s part of what we will be talking about today and tomorrow of how we can grow that and how we can continue to grow that mental health piece.”
Wood’s comments come after a season when Magpie star Dayne Beams stepped away from the game indefinitely to focus on his mental health, while Bulldogs premiership player Tom Boyd announced his retirement in May last year citing physical and mental health issues.
Asked if players were still enjoying themselves as much as they could amid the pressures of the game, Wood acknowledged the focus on players had changed significantly since he was a rookie due to the rapid rise of social media.
“I’ve been in the system coming into my 13th season, it’s easier for me to enjoy the game because I’ve been able to build resilience through my young years and probably do that in a pretty safe space where social media wasn’t such a big thing back in 2007,” Wood said.
“I don’t think I even had an iPhone , I don’t think it was around then it might have only just come out. Things have just changed at such a rapid rate.
“I do feel that there has been that shift as we mentioned on the mental health side of things that is allowing more room to breath, people to share their own individual stories and I think more joy comes out of that and celebrating each other’s individual stories amongst a team environment.
“I do think we are getting better in that regard.”
