Fan ejected from Marvel Stadium during Carlton-Brisbane clash for abusing umpire Mathew Nicholls
A fan who was ejected from this weekend’s Carlton-Brisbane clash at Marvel Stadium for abusing an umpire has revealed what he said to spark the drama — but another eyewitness says that’s not what happened.
AFL
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An AFL crackdown on umpire abuse has led to another fan being ejected — but debate rages about what he said.
The Carlton fan — attending Saturday’s clash with Brisbane — was booted from Marvel Stadium after umpire Mathew Nicholls appeared to point him out at halftime.
A caller to radio station 3AW claiming to be the evicted fan said he chose his words carefully.
“That was me and all I said was: ‘You can’t (handball) one-handed, you bald-headed flog’,’’ the caller said.
“He’s just pretty much stamped his hand on the side of the wall there, pointed at the security guard and sort of chucked a hissy fit.
“There were security guards standing pretty close to me and they heard everything as well and as I was being escorted to the back of the ground they said, (there) is nothing we can do, this is management policy.
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“I actually chose my words and made sure I didn’t swear because there’s kids around so it’s pretty embarrassing from the AFL.
“They’ve made me wait half an hour for an AFL integrity officer to come and take a photo of myself and my membership then I got escorted from the ground by the police and security. I was pretty annoyed.”
The caller added: “Going by last week’s (incident) with the Richmond (fan) I’m guessing I’m missing the next three weeks, maybe even longer — I don’t know.”
A witness told the Sunday Herald Sun he heard the ejected fan shout a homophobic slur.
“At halftime, I stood up to stretch my legs and the umpires started coming towards the tunnel,’’ he said.
“It was actually pretty quiet around that area. When the umpires started getting closer he started abusing and said: ‘You can’t handball with one hand Nicholls you bald-headed p--f’.
“I am pretty certain he said ‘p--f’.
“Nicholls heard him and stopped, to my amazement. He pointed to one of the security guards to throw him out. The loudmouth kept on abusing even after Nicholls was pointing to him. He did not go into that tunnel until the guy was evicted.”
AFL Fans Association president Gerry Eeman said: “We get that if people are going to use homophobic or racially motivated slurs, that there’s no place for that at the footy, but we are concerned at the growing policing of fans and we don’t want to get to a situation where it feels like Big Brother is always watching.
“Footy is an emotional game, there needs to be a little bit of an allowance for people saying stupid things. I don’t think calling someone a flog warrants kicking them out.’’
The AFL denies there is a fan crackdown, and is due to receive an incident report on Tuesday.
It comes after a Richmond supporter was banned for three matches for allegedly calling an umpire a “green maggot” on Anzac Day Eve.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan denied the issue — which was dealt with by the Tigers — was political correctness gone mad.
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“There are lots of complaints about crowd behaviour coming from the public that initiated this one,” McLachlan said.
“It was referred back to the club. As I understand it, the club cheer squad itself dealt with the issue internally.
“Everyone needs to be able to come to the football and feel it’s an inclusive environment, but the concept of ‘PCness’ and everything else is rubbish.”
The issue led the Richmond cheer squad to send a memo to its members which included the line: “We ask that cheer squad members refrain from making any derogatory comments towards anyone, be it on field or off.”
The Blues were also sent a “please explain” recently when some of its fans were heard singing “the umpire’s a wanker” .
Originally published as Fan ejected from Marvel Stadium during Carlton-Brisbane clash for abusing umpire Mathew Nicholls
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