Brisbane Lions ‘wrap their arms’ around racially vilified teammate

Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan has slammed the “cowards” who launched racial online attacks on Charlie Cameron and three other Indigenous AFL players.

Charlie Cameron has been the target of racist online attacks. Picture: Chris Hyde / AFL Photos / Getty Images

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan fears racist attacks on AFL players will forever be a problem as the Lions “wrap their arms” around an emotional Charlie Cameron.

Star forward Cameron was one of four Indigenous players – along with Adelaide’s Izak Rankine and Fremantle duo Michael Walters and Nathan Wilson – who had been racially abused on line this week.

“It’s completely unacceptable,” Fagan said on Thursday.

“It’s totally disappointing. The people that do it are cowards. The trouble is it’s hard to find them.”

Fagan said Cameron was “OK” but “hurting inside”.

“He’s a very resilient person, Charlie. He’s been very normal around the club this week (and) trained with lots of energy this morning,” the Lions coach said.

“He always brings that, but inside he’d be hurting.

(His teammates) just wrap their arms around him. Charlie’s a much-loved character.

“He feels really safe in our environment. He’s having to come here every day, and knows that whatever gets said out in the community doesn’t fly.

“What on earth (possesses) people to do those sort of things? I don’t understand at all,

“I’d like to think that we can get rid of it completely, but unfortunately I don’t think that’s going to be the case.

“We’re going to forever be putting up with people doing these sorts of things, whether it’s to our Indigenous people or other people within the community.”

A happier Charlie Cameron celebrates after kicking a goal against Collingwood. Picture: Chris Hyde / AFL Photos / Getty Images

Fagan’s comments came as he prepared to go head-to-head with North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson in Saturday’s Gather Round clash between the Lions and Kangaroos at Mount Barker.

Fagan and Clarkson are the subjects of an ongoing AFL investigation into historical claims of racism at Hawthorn.

When asked about his relationship with Clarkson since the start of the investigation last year, Fagan said: “I worked with ‘Clarko’ when I first started in AFL footy at the Melbourne footy club back in 1998, so it’s been a long association.

“We, and his family, and my family have a strong friendship.”

He said Saturday’s match was “not ‘Clarko’ versus Fagan, it’s North Melbourne versus Brisbane”.

“I think about it that way and I reckon he does, too. We might have a bit of a laugh about it down the track, but it’s more about the teams.” Fagan said.

“He would make a difference (at the Kangaroos) because he’s a very, very good coach and he’s got some good people there helping him as well, and no doubt they’ve drafted and recruited really well over the last year or two.

“We think in similar ways, so he’s probably doing a lot of the same things that we (the Lions) were doing (six) years ago when we all first started on this journey together.”

Veteran defender Daniel Rich, who has missed Brisbane’s past two matches with a quad injury, is set to return on Saturday.

“He’s a handy, experienced player to hopefully bring back into the side. We’ll see how he goes in the Captain’s Run (on Friday),” Fagan said.