Council covers Gardens Oval fence to stop football racial abuse

DRUNK spectators yelling out racial abuse to football players at a Darwin oval have spurred officials to take deterrent measures.

Darwin Council has put up black plastic wrap on Gardens Oval fence after multiple incidents of abuse, mostly racial, being hurled at players. Picture: RAPHAELLA SAROUKOS

DRUNK spectators who are yelling out racial abuse to football players at a popular sports oval in Darwin have spurred officials to take deterrent measures.

A spokeswoman from AFLNT said they asked Darwin council to a large black fencing wrap around Gardens Oval after there were repeated incidents of abuse, mostly racial, being hurled at players and officials by people outside the fence.

Waratah Football Club president Paul Gross said his team were one of many who had copped an earful of nasty slurs when they played at Gardens Oval.

“It’s been an ongoing problem from a while now but things really came to a head last month,” he said.

“We had some games on the weekend before Australia Day and someone outside was yelling out racial abuse, with as much nastiness as you can imagine.

“It’s so foul I don’t want to repeat it. It’s just not acceptable. We can’t have that.

“It wasn’t just our players who copped it, St Mary’s and Southern Districts were also there that day.”

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He said many people would drive their cars up to the oval’s fence, drink and watch the games from outside so they didn’t have to pay an entry fee.

A spokeswoman from AFLNT — which is the governing body of the competition — said they had limited power to respond to people’s bad behaviour outside the boundaries of their venue.

“The only solution would’ve been to call the police for every incident so by working together the parties hope this (fencing wrap) will stop that unwanted behaviour,” she said.

A Darwin council spokeswoman said since they put the fence wrap up there had been no similar incidents that they know of.

“The fencing wrap was installed prior to the Australia Day weekend and will be in place until the end of the 2019/20 AFL NT season,” she said.

Mr Gross said he was glad they could find a solution to stop the abuse because they have a lot of junior games coming up soon.

“There are going to be a lot of young kids at the oval for those games over the next few weeks,” he said.

“The last they need to hear is some drunk bloke yelling abuse.

“We need to stamp out that kind of behaviour.”