Indigenous ex-Collingwood star Andrew Krakouer says Eddie McGuire has got it wrong on Taylor Walker’s racism apology
Andrew Krakouer was the target of racial abuse during his time in the AFL. But he doesn’t believe Taylor Walker should be shown the door at the Crows. Here’s why.
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Andrew Krakouer has hit out at former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire’s reaction to a video clip showing Taylor Walker apologise for his racist behaviour.
McGuire said he was satisfied with the way Walker had chosen to sit in front of a camera — instead of a live press conference — to prerecord a message to say he was sorry for vilifying North Adelaide’s Robbie Young.
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When challenged that Walker might have portrayed himself as a victim, and that parts of the clip were contrived, McGuire went on to say: “If you apologise, it’s all spin. If you don’t apologise, then you’re recalcitrant.
“If you apologise too much, then you’re adding mayonnaise to it.
“There is no answer to this.”
Krakouer retweeted McGuire’s quotes and posted the message: “The answer: Don’t be racist. If our blakness (sic) bothers you … you’re a racist.”
Walker was banned for six weeks for his racist comment and his future at Adelaide is uncertain.
Young also appeared in the video.
“The club needed to do something and I looked at that and I thought well, I see he is sincere,” McGuire told Footy Classified on Wednesday.
“He has apologised in front of the cameras to the person who was the major person.”
Krakouer, who played 35 games for Collingwood, went public earlier this year about the racism he was subjected to during his time with the Magpies.
He said one racial slur cut him to his core in the Collingwood changerooms.
“I was anxious, I was angry, I was annoyed — and in disbelief that I had just heard that in my own workplace and it was my own teammates who were making the racial slurs,” he said.
Earlier this week Krakouer, who also played for Richmond, said education rather than a harsher punishment was the key to ensuring Walker learnt lessons from his behaviour.
“It’s about that education,” he told SEN.
“People are saying that Taylor (Walker’s) contract should be ripped up, but I don’t think that should be the case.
“People make mistakes and I’m certainly one that has done that, you have to give people an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and be better.
“Taylor has a fair way to be able to come back, but he needs to get that support.”
Collingwood announced earlier this year it would adopt all recommendations from the ‘Do Better’ report that found the club had been guilty of ‘systemic racism’.
McGuire quit as president in February after the report was leaked to the public.
He came under severe scrutiny for his response to the report.
Peris: Tweet that should end Tex’s AFL career
Australia’s first Indigenous Olympic gold medallist Nova Peris has questioned whether Taylor Walker should be allowed to play AFL ever again.
The former senator said if we applied the same standards to Walker that he had demanded of the public in the past the “answer is no”.
Peris was referring to a Walker Tweet in 2016 that said a female fan “shouldn’t ever be allowed back into the enjoy the football” after throwing a banana at Eddie Betts.
Peris said Walker’s racial vilification of North Adelaide’s Robbie Young while he was a spectator at a Crows reserves match at Prospect Oval on July 17 was “inexcusable”.
“It is clearly deep-seeded racist views here for Taylor Walker,” she said.
“This incident was in a public area, people saw him, everyone knows who he is. He is six foot four, a former captain of the Crows and a currently listed AFL player.
“All that and he still had no care factor towards his actions. He was not drunk because he played for the Crows the very next day.
“He was not in a pub brawl or the heat of a moment battle in an AFL game. This was in broad daylight and he was in control of his actions and thoughts.
Absolutely disgusting! Shouldn't ever be allowed back into enjoy the football. Very disappointing. https://t.co/F6uzjvvFWK
— Tex Walker (@texwalker13) August 20, 2016
“He was representing the Adelaide Crows, representing the AFL, already placed on a public pedestal as a legend and a hero to the Crows.
“It is just plain racist, inexcusable and unforgivable especially from his teammates.”
Peris, who won gold with the Hockeyroos at the 1996 Olympics before representing Australia as a runner during Sydney 2000, recalled an incident from 2016 when she was racially abused on her Facebook page while serving as a Federal Labor Senator for the Northern Territory.
In July that year a NSW chiropractor, Chris Nelson, was handed an eight-month suspended jail sentence and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond for abusive and racial comments on Peris’ Facebook page.
Among the comments he posted on Peris’ page were:
“Go back to the bush and suck on witchity [sic] grubs and yams.”
“You were only endorsed by Juliar because you were a black ----.”
In sentencing Nelson, the magistrate said the posts were “clearly offensive not only to Nova Peris but the Australian community”.
“I was called a black ---- on Facebook, there was public outcry, 35,000 people decided to not be silent bystanders,” Peris said.
“The man was arrested, went to court, fined and given an eight month suspended sentence by the judge and that set a precedent.
“This shows how much of a serious offence it is, you can go to jail.”
While Walker said in a statement on Friday he was “deeply ashamed”, Peris said being an AFL player was no excuse for racist behaviour.
“To play elite sport is a privilege and sport has a power to influence change, it has a power to have positive influences on negative stereotypes, on many areas of humanity,” she said.
“And one of the privileges of being a professional sportsperson is that you have a platform to lead by example.
“How much education do you need on racism as an AFL player?
“Taylor Walker was drafted in 2007 and has been a part of 15 Indigenous rounds, some of those as captain.
“Indigenous rounds honours and values and respects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and our cultures.
“It showcases to the rest of the country these intended messages.
“As a race of people when one Aboriginal person achieves we all feel that sense of pride and achievement because we all come from and are all descendants of that same form of oppression and dispossession.
“We know where we have come from and how hard it has been to be successful.”
Peris said Walker should have already known the hurt Indigenous players and people have been through.
“When one of our mob is targeted, for example Eddie Betts, Adam Goodes, Michael Long, Nicky Winmar and the list goes on and on, Bradley Hill etc, we all stand in solidarity and call on all of the sporting codes to protect us,” she said.
“It is our workplace.
“After three AFL endorsed documentaries, the Final Quarter, the Australian Dream and the Ripple Effect, out of the three of them I feature in two of them.
“We all gave heartfelt and truthful interviews on the impacts of racism. I have no doubts that Taylor Walker has seen all three, the Adelaide Crows have seen these.”
Peris said Walker’s four Indigenous teammates — Wayne Milera, Ben Davis, Tariek Newchurch and Shane McAdam — had been placed in a difficult situation.
“Is it subconsciously what he feels about Aboriginal people,” she said.
“Taylor Walker, having grown up and played football in Broken Hill, a mining town with race relation problems like most mining towns on Aboriginal country, has Tex heard that phrase smash the black ---- before?
“We all know that people aren’t born racist, it is a learned behaviour.
“What message does this now send to the future of the game for young Aboriginal players? “That they can go into the AFL system and that other teammates have deep-seeded hatred towards them.
“And that one minute they are your mate and the next minute they are calling another brother a black ----.
“How are the Crows going to feel when he walks back in after his suspension. How are the four listed Aboriginal players going to feel looking at him when they look him in the eye knowing what he really thinks about Aboriginal people?
“We should not be subjected to any harassment in our workplace. Robbie Young, it was his workplace — he was at work.
“The Aboriginal community, who love AFL would be very, very upset and hurt.”
Peris said Walker should look at how the Boomers carried themselves en route to winning Olympic bronze.
“I sit on the Australian Olympic Committee’s Indigenous advisory committee. We influenced the change of the Olympic oath,” she said.
“Every athlete swore on that oath, it was important.
“Look at what Patty Mills and the Boomers have done, the whole team carrying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Australian flags combined with the leadership of Patty Mills’ post-game interview.
“Knowing who they represented as a Boomer was integral in the way they played, the way they conducted themselves on and off the court.
“They brought together a nation, they gave hope to every Australian kid that irrespective of our differences we all belong to the human race and together we win.”
Jong: Punishment not harsh enough
– Jay Clark
Retired Western Bulldog Lin Jong has expressed his disappointment in the six-match ban handed down to Walker, saying the punishment was too light.
“I know for a fact how much education we go through and it didn’t seem like a slip-of-the-tongue comment sort of thing,” Jong said on Triple M.
“It is a really sad thing and people deal with it in their own way.
“It was pretty disappointing to hear something was said like that and I’m not sure what the process of the punishment was or who decided it, but I’m not sure about it.
“For me, no (it was not harsh enough).
“Speaking from experience it doesn’t seem like it.”
Jong said he had been the victim of racism on the football field and described the significant damage it caused.
“It is really belittling,” he said.
“Growing up as an Asian player, I have always felt different in the first place and then when people point out that difference it is pretty hurtful.
“It happened in juniors and it happened when I played AFL footy.”
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