Fans booed AFL star ‘for his support of Folau’

AFL star Gary Ablett Jr was booed because of his support for Israel Folau on social media, according to Jeff Kennett.

Gary Ablett, centre, with Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield during Geelong’s win over Hawthorn. Picture: AAP

Geelong AFL star Gary Ablett Jr was booed because of his support for Israel Folau on social media, according to Jeff Kennett, who said both Geelong and Hawthorn supporters targeted the champion player.

The AFL’s head of football, Steve Hocking, said he did not know the motivation of the fans’ decision to boo Ablett in the Easter Monday blockbuster at the MCG, but the situation couldn’t be compared to the persistent booing of Adam Goodes in 2013.

Mr Kennett, the president of Hawthorn Football Club, told 3AW radio yesterday he believed Ablett’s decision to “like” a social media post by Folau was the catalyst for the booing. “I think you’ll find it had more to do, from what I’m being told, with the Instagram comments that he made more than anything else — I don’t know what else it would be.”

Ablett drew the public’s ire after he liked a social media post by Wallabies rugby star Israel Folau that said LGBT people, drunks and adulterers were going to burn in hell.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison talks with former Victoria Premier and Hawthorn President Jeff Kennett. Picture: Michael Klein

Mr Kennett said disputes over religious views had no place on the field. “I don’t think … the views that one holds politically or ­religiously should flow over onto the sporting field,” he said. Ablett, a two-time Brownlow Medal winner, took to Instagram at the weekend to explain why he had liked Folau’s controversial post.

“I have always admired how strong Izzy is in his faith; it is not easy to share faith in the public sphere, and this is why I initially ‘liked’ his post,” he said.

Mr Hocking said he was uncertain what prompted the booing, noting it had occurred before at games between the Cats and Hawthorn, but said if it escalated he would take the issue to the integrity department.

Mr Hocking, the former Geelong football operations manager, commended Ablett for his handling of the booing and said he had faith AFL crowds would treat Ablett reasonably. “I think they get it right most times. I wouldn’t tie the Adam Goodes stuff to the Ablett stuff. It is a very different situation,” he said.

Goodes, also a dual Brownlow Medal winner, was booed heavily by fans in 2013, with claims the booing was racially motivated after Goodes took a stand on indigenous issues.

The AFL eventually apologised to Goodes over its slow response to the booing.

Longtime footy fans Steve Pratt and Brian Martella say the booing controversy is overblown.

Mr Pratt, a Cats fan for 53 years, said the booing was “pretty infantile … Everyone has a right to an opinion, even if that opinion is wrong … It was pretty stupid in a way, but that’s the emotion at the height of the game.”

Mr Martella, who played for the Cats in 1971, said things were quite different when he was on the field. “The only time anyone was booed (was) if they were involved in an incident behind the play and they’d be booed by opposition supporters and that was it.”

AFL Fans Association president Gerry Eeman said while most footy fans would disagree with Folau’s Instagram posts, the jury was still out on booing.