AFL Right Of Reply On O'Brien.

AFL Media Manager Patrick Keane has responded to the article posted on Monday by sportingscribe.com with reference to Collingwood player Harry O'Brien.

 In terms of abuse on-field, the umpires can lay a charge under the Laws of the Game if they hear the abuse that is directed and / or there is a complaint from a player. From last Saturday's match at the MCG, there was no matter regarding Collingwood's Harry O'Brien that was heard by the umpires on the night or directed to the AFL through our match review process.

When there is an on-field matter that is not heard by the umpires, but a player remains aggrieved by what has occurred, the player or his club can complain to the AFL directly via the vilification rules. These rules do not just cover race as you believe, but actually cover any form of vilification IF the player concerned wishes to lay a complaint. The basis of the rules is that the person being vilified chooses to take the action, on the grounds that comments have caused hurt / offence to them. Again, there was no complaint laid by the Geelong club or one of its players on the night. In the case of the incident involving Stephen Milne that you refer to, the words said were heard by an umpire on the night, who laid a charge.

It is the AFL's view that swearing is not appropriate at any time during under-age matches but there will be occasions where there is swearing in senior age football, both at AFL level and at community level. The AFL accepts that swearing is not tolerable to many people, due to their own particular standards, but the lines that have been drawn under our rules relate to vilification around race, sexual identity, sexual orientation, religion, creed and culture, along with the option for a player to lay a complaint in another area IF the player chooses to lay a complaint.

Patrick Keane
AFL Media Manager
 

Reading through the response it is clear that the AFL will move on complaints lodged by a player if there is no umpire evidence. So in the case of Harry O'Brien's remark to Geelong's Tom Hawkins the matter is closed as there was no complaint lodged by Geelong or the player as you would expect. As O'Brien said "it was only banter". I suggest that most remarks on the field are just banter and it's a pity that some people don't see it that way.

O'Brien has been at the centre of on field allegations in the past wanting justice but now the shoe is on the other foot O'Brien claims "oh it was only banter".

Go to the set of the Biggest Loser Harry and yell out the same quote. 

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!

AFL Will Not Investigate O’Brien

By Mark Humphrey

Well what a joke. Once again the AFL has proven that they have a selective discrimination policy.

That selective discrimination policy once again erred on the non-Caucasian side as the AFL said that they will not be investigating the O’Brien incident.  

O’Brien posted on his twitter feed that he actually called Geelong forward Tom Hawkins a “fat F**K” and not a Fat Fa##ot as some have suggested. O’Brien said “it was just on-field banter” and that was it. If that was on field banter then what was Stephen Milne’s comment to O’Brien last year. Surely that was “on- field banter” as well yet Milne received a $3000 fine over the comment.

So why is it that the AFL will not accept a homophobic comment directed at someone but will accept a derogative comment directed towards someone about their weight?

I bet that if I walked into a gym and called a woman a “fat f**k” I would be in court before the ink could dry on the summons and rightly so but apparently the AFL thinks it is ok to call someone a “fat F**K” as they have decided not to investigate the matter. You just have to wonder what the AFL’s reaction would have been if the comment was “fat black f**k”.

If Andrew Demetriou is serious about having a non- discriminative league and paving the way for sporting organisations around the world then he needs to look in his own backyard first.

Sportingscribe.com would like to know how discriminating comments about someone’s color or sexuality differs from discriminating remarks about someone’s body size?

No doubt as per usual the AFL will just let this go away as this type of discrimination is not on their agenda.

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