A fan who threw a banana in the direction of Indigenous Adelaide Crows star Eddie Betts will have her club membership cancelled by Port Adelaide.
Port’s chairman David Koch said the club knew who she was but had not yet spoken with her.
“We’ve revoked the membership not only for this year but also for next year as well,” he said.
“Whether we take any further action will be decided on the outcome of the motivation and further investigation.
“If it was racially motivated not only would she be banned for life from the club, we would encourage her to come and sit with our players, our Aboriginal players, and try and understand what these actions mean to them.”
Betts was celebrating his 250th AFL game in Showdown 41 and ended Saturday night’s game with a trademark snap goal from the left pocket to secure the 15-point win at Adelaide Oval.
The goalsneak then looked into the crowd, dominated by Power fans, before walking away as his team-mates arrived to celebrate with him.
A video appeared on social media shortly after the game showing the woman throwing something at the Indigenous star, which team-mate Josh Jenkins batted away.
Spectator Jamie Christodoulou said he saw the woman throw a banana after Betts had scored.
“A lot of supporters in the area were very disappointed and angered with what she had done,” he said.
“We all outed her, I particularly did.
I pretty much … told her she was out of line, just took it too far, there’s no place for that.”
Mr Christodoulou said he and his family, including children, had been forced to put up with the woman’s foul language at home games all year.
“This happened in the row in front of me. I am proud to say that I yelled at her and told her she took it too far. She responded by saying, ‘but he’s just a monkey’.”
He said the woman then got up and left.
“Betts did heckle the crowd after he got that goal, but he didn’t deserve such a racist act,” he said.
The Crows released a statement saying the club was “disappointed and disgusted” by the behaviour of some fans at the Showdown.
“The club has contacted the Port Adelaide Football Club, Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority and AFL, and has expressed in the strongest possible terms that we expect significant action to be taken against any person found guilty of anti-social behaviour,” it said.
‘Nasty form of racial comment’: Premier.
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said he and most other football fans at the game were impressed with Betts’s performance.
“As for the idiot who thought throwing a banana was funny, it wasn’t. It appears this was just a particularly nasty form of racist comment,” he said.
“I am pleased the club has taken strong and immediate action.”
Port Adelaide was swift to issue a statement after the video of the incident surfaced, saying it would conduct an investigation.
“Port Adelaide is appalled by the vision and will not tolerate this type of anti-social behaviour at its games,” it read.
“Any object thrown onto the field in the direction of players, coaches or umpires is completely unacceptable.
“Port Adelaide implemented a spectator code of conduct in 2014 for all its members and supporters to ensure Adelaide Oval is a family friendly environment at its games.”
The AFL is not unfamiliar with controversies pertaining to vilification by its fans.
Indigenous Sydney Swans forward Adam Goodes was pushed into retirement by persistent abuse from the crowd and a number of anti-Muslim banners have been unfurled at games in 2016.
This post originally appeared on ABC News. Featured image: Getty images.
© 2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Read the ABC Disclaimer here.
Top Comments
Eddie is a professional doing his job. This woman is a low life who struggles with equality. name her and shame her. By all accounts she is proud of herself and seeks out public displays of racism. Please afford us the same opportunity to publicly let her know it is not ok.
I do not agree with her actions at all, nor do I agree with your response.
She is an idiot no doubt, but this vigilante witch hunt which is becoming so popular in social media to find her, name her, her location, her employer and shame her and possibly lose her job and be the subject of hate mail on any social media site she is on is simply acceptable.
She did a stupid thing, but this encouragement of vigilantism and bullying on social media which you promote has long term repercussions and is becoming rife more and more lately.
It would be appreciated if you could please add your name to your comment so we can name and shame you as a vigilante, outraged cyber bully encouraging harassing keyboard warrior to rip into her and we can let your friends and employers know that it is not ok?
I agree with Guest 3.7 below. By all accounts she has had membership revoked, facing criminal charges and has had her face shown across the nation. All of which she deserves and is being done in the correct channels (except the media) and it should be left to them. She deserves the punishments they will dish out.
Consequences are all around us. You do the offence, you receive your name in the media. As far as I am aware I have never committed any crime or offence. Simple. Strange how people attack others for being vigilante when they express opinions supporting law abiding behaviour. As far as the media goes, they are reporting from witnesses that her actions were racially motivated, not stupid actions, racially motivated. There are consequences for that. She attended some one's workplace and committed an offence, I have not done that. I am drawing the comparison that she wouldn't like it happen to her. Simple. Don't know why anyone would defend a racist, but hang on, there is this issue in Australia that it is ok to attack Aboriginals, right?
My request was simple, what is your full name and where do you work? Face up to the consequences of your comments.
I don't really care tbh, I'm just using your same logic and standards for naming and shaming online which you are encouraging.