A well-known Canberra Raiders drummer who says he was struck in the head and abused by Canterbury fans after Sunday afternoon’s match at Belmore feared he could have been seriously injured had the Bulldogs lost.
“I would have left that ground in an ambulance,” Simon Tayoun told this masthead.
Video footage emerged online of Tayoun, 59, being surrounded by up to a dozen fans wearing Bulldogs colours on Burwood Road following Canterbury’s 22-18 victory over the Raiders.
The mob verbally abused Tayoun while one fan tried to drag him down to the ground as he was holding the heavy drum he takes to every Raiders match.
Canterbury said in a statement on Monday they were “profoundly disheartened by the display of intimidation and inappropriate conduct towards another fan of the game”.
“While the vast majority of our patrons upheld the values of sportsmanship, this behaviour falls far short of what we stand for as a club,” the Bulldogs said.
Simon Tayoun is surrounded by Bulldogs fans after Sunday’s game.
Tayoun, who is of Lebanese-Australian descent – and lives in a Bulldogs-supporting area – said he was glad his son had gone to the toilet at the time of the incident, otherwise “there would have been a big problem”.
“The game had finished, I was walking back to my car, then these people followed me,” Tayoun said. “They started pushing me around, trying to tackle me, hitting me in the head with a stick, swearing and telling me, ‘F--- you, go back to Canberra, we don’t want you here’.
“But I live in Sydney. I live in the Bulldogs district. It wasn’t safe at all. In 35 years, this has never happened to me. I’m gutted. I’m upset. There was a lot more than what was on the video.
“They won and this happened. Had they lost, I would have left in an ambulance, for sure. Inside the stadium, kids were sticking their fingers up at me. Even their parents. It was bad.”
Reed Mahoney greets the Canterbury fans at fulltime.Credit: NRL Photos
Tayoun’s wife, Margaret, is a Bulldogs supporter and loved the atmosphere during the game – including the scenes on the streets afterwards, likening it to the club “having just won a grand final”.
But she feared the worst when she spotted her husband’s viking horns through the crowd, then saw him being surrounded and shoved around.
Tayoun said he was too angry to take a call from Bulldogs CEO Aaron Warburton. Warburton referred this masthead to the club’s official statement.
“I go to all the games, I love my Raiders,” Tayoun said.
“You might get one or two fans say something, but never like Sunday. I tell fans Canterbury are my second team because of my wife. But not now.”
Over 18,000 fans attended the match at Belmore Sportsground, with the vast majority well-behaved. While some supporters booed Canberra’s milestone man Josh Papalii, both teams lined up to honour the 300-gamer as he walked off.
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