Eddie Betts calls for action on racial abuse as AFL searches for culprits

As the AFL vowed to track down the source of online racial attacks on players a legend said enough is enough.

Charlie Cameron and Eddie Betts (Photo by Darrian Traynor/AFL Photos/Getty Images)

Retired AFL champion Eddie Betts labelled a spate of online racial abuse of players last weekend ‘targeted attacks” as league boss Gillon McLachlan vowed to track the culprits down.

The AFL‘s integrity unit is this week investigating separate incidents or online abuse involving four players from Adelaide, Fremantle and Brisbane following Round 4.

Clubs and the league have called the attacks out as “vile” and McLachlan said AFL was doing what it could to find the culprits and penalise them.

“The set of words I have, I am just sick of saying them,” McLachlan said ahead of Gather Round in Adelaide.

“It has got no place in our game, it has got no place in our community - it‘s frankly just a disgrace, it’s abhorrent.

Eddie Betts with Charlie Cameron who was one of the victims of racial abuse. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/AFL Photos/Getty Images)

“It causes so much hurt to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, frankly I think it offends 99.99 per cent of all football followers, all Australians.

“I am out of words.

“We are taking the action we can. We work hard to track them down but we know they disappear.”

Betts, who himself was subjected to abuse throughout his stellar career with Carlton and Adelaide, said “enough is enough”.

“When I saw what happened over the weekend, it was hard to see, and my love goes out to those boys and they’re families.” he told Fox Footy.

“Enough’s enough. When are we going to see a stance?

“It’s going to keep happening. It felt like it was a targeted attack.”

The coach of the Adelaide Crows coach has come out swinging following a vile racist comment directed at star Izak Rankine. #9Newspic.twitter.com/5JCiW7sCmE

— 9News Adelaide (@9NewsAdel) April 11, 2023

Betts said action required everyone calling out anyone who racially vilified a player, but feared it would be hard to stamp out.

“They don’t like Aboriginal people standing up for what they believe in and trying to stamp out racism. It feels like they want to put us back down in our boxes where they think we belong,” Betts said.

“Everyone else needs to do their part and continue to talk and continue to educate and continue to have those conversations.

“Look at (Adam Goodes). He called out racism and it kept happening to him, and people were jumping on board even thought they didn‘t know what was going.

“It is disappointing to see. We just have to continue to keep educating.

“We’re seeing change, but it’s always going to happen.”

Originally published as Eddie Betts calls for action on racial abuse as AFL searches for culprits