Homophobic and dumb: Why the punishment is right for Powell’s slur

Just days after Port Adelaide’s Jeremy Finlayson told The Age how contrite he was for using a homophobic slur on the football field, Gold Coast’s Wil Powell decided to use the same word to denigrate an opponent.

Powell copped a five-match suspension, two more than Finlayson, and he isn’t allowed to play VFL either.

Lengthy ban: Gold Coast’s Wil Powell.Credit: Getty Images

That might seem a severe penalty, particularly when measured against the minimum three-match suspension players receive for severe high bumps. But the only reasonable reaction to Powell’s comment was not only that it was offensive, but that it was dumb.

It wasn’t as though players hadn’t been warned that it was no longer acceptable to use homophobic slurs albeit it appears that occurred via osmosis rather than an official statement to clubs telling them what players might expect for future transgressions, something clubs are entitled to know in a professional competition.

The AFL’s legal counsel, Stephen Meade, had been blunt when delivering the three-match sanction to Finlayson, less than a month ago on April 10.

“The AFL will continue to consider the specific circumstances in each incident in determining appropriate responses. Jeremy’s sanction would have been higher if he didn’t immediately understand and take ownership of his mistake both privately and publicly,” Meade said.

Even allowing for the fact some players don’t follow the game as much as the media and fans, Powell was aware enough to ’fess up immediately to club officials. Despite the fact he did immediately understand and take ownership of his mistake, the extra two matches were still required if the league is fair dinkum about stamping out homophobic language.

Some might think the AFL is being precious in applying the second-largest sanction of the season for the use of the word “f-----”. It is not.

The word only has one effect: it denigrates same-sex attracted people and makes those on the football field who are same-sex attracted feel unsafe about being themselves. We now have more than enough evidence to know that is dangerous to the health and wellbeing of same-sex attracted people.

If there is any hope of changing attitudes and behaviours to ensure a game – that not so long ago carried a culture that was hostile to same-sex attracted people – becomes welcoming, then this needed to be the stance.

It won’t always be easy. People will ask: what about this or that phrase? And there won’t be as easy an answer as there is when dealing with a player saying what Powell did because most of us push at the edges of what’s acceptable in our daily lives.

But you can only jump such hurdles when you reach them.

An embarrassed Finlayson summed up the reality for players when he told The Age’s Caroline Wilson how he reflected on the offence he had caused.

“Every day, I wish I could take it all back,” he said. “It’s hard to talk about even now, and I don’t know who I’ve hurt or how many people. I have family members who are gay and friends who are gay.

“I’ve reached out to them all to try to explain I just said something so wrong in the heat of the moment.”

Now, Powell also has to face friends and people at his club offended by what he said. He must look at his coach and teammates who must be wondering how he put himself in the position to be suspended.

That’s unfortunate for the 24-year-old who potentially carries similar attitudes to those identified in a 2018 study led by Monash University’s Erik Denison on the use of homophobic language in sport.

The study found sportspeople using such language carried no real hostility to same-sex attracted people, but used such phrases because it was normalised to sledge anyone with homophobic slurs.

But now we know such words and phrases are harmful to people around us whom we care about. We need to break that cycle of normalisation of homophobic language.

We only have one choice. Stop it.

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