AFL fans have turned on the league following its punishment of GWS players for inappropriate and offensive actions at their Wacky Wednesday party, calling for boycotts.
A total of 13 Giants players were handed bans or fines by the AFL for their actions at the September 18 party following the end of their season.
An anonymous complaint was made the next day to the AFL and that sparked a joint investigation with the Giants, resulting in the sanctions announced on Thursday night.
League chief executive Andrew Dillon said there will be ‘big learnings’ for GWS and the rest of the competition in the wake of the function.
‘Clubs, as they do, should be able to celebrate or commiserate their end of season,’ Dillon said.
‘But I think for GWS there will be big learnings from this, and I think there’ll be learnings for all of our clubs.
‘What’s important is there’s oversight and better decisions made. What we have here is a small number of players here making really poor choices, terrible mistakes.’
Fringe Giants player Josh Fahey copped the heaviest penalty, suspended for four games
The AFL has come under fire for the decision to ban players for their actions at a private function
Giants fringe player Josh Fahey is banned for four matches, while key forward Jake Riccardi heads four teammates who will miss the first two games of next season.
Captain Toby Greene was among senior players fined for not stepping in to stop the skits. No club officials were sanctioned.
Channel Nine’s Tom Morris has reported that Fahey dressed as former NRL star Jarryd Hayne while Jake Ricciardi dressed as a taxi driver and they simulated inappropriate acts on a sex doll.
Connor Idun and Lachie Whitfield reportedly enacted a movie scene that included slavery.
And it was reported that Toby McMullin and Cooper Hamilton simulated the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre while Harvey Thomas and Joe Fonti acted out an inappropriate skit involving a famous sportsman.
It has also been reported that the skits involved Australian athletes Josh Giddey and Raygun along with American rapper P Diddy.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said there were ‘learnings’ to be made from the debacle
Captain Toby Green was another star that was punished by the AFL over the skits
Former Collingwood star Dane Swan led a chorus of objections to the punishments and slammed the staff member at the party that allegedly lodged a complaint about the players’ behaviour.
‘You have to kind of hope these GWS boys have sacrificed a live goat or something at this pub cause these punishments are ridiculous for what is being told right now,’ he posted.
‘Also the bartender who ratted them deserves jail time. All time disgusting thing to do at a private event.’
And several fans have called for action including boycotting GWS games to make a stand against the AFL’s decision.
‘If I was GWS I wouldn’t be rocking up for the first 4 games of the season. That would stuff the woke AFL right up,’ one fan fumed.
‘I propose that in round one of next year season all fans attending the game should put black tape over the AFL logo on their jerseys,’ another suggested.
Others wanted to see a league-wide boycott, with one posting: ‘Just imagine all clubs boycott & move to the ORA (Oz Rules Association).’
‘Just bloody well strike until some sense comes out of this establishment,’ added another.
‘Players association has to fight this,’ posted yet another.
‘The entire GWS cheer squad should turn up for round one dressed as RayGun,’ suggested another angry fan.
There were numerous comments online slamming the AFL for being ‘woke’ for its actions in punishing the Giants players
There were hundreds of online comments slamming the AFL for being ‘woke’ and plenty questioning the validity of punishing players for actions conducted in a private setting.
‘Unacceptable? What’s unacceptable is the AFL stepping over players’ personal boundaries. We need to protect what’s sacred in this game: our players and fans,’ raged one footy supporter.
‘Hopefully someone makes a new footy league because this one’s going down the toilet,’ posted another.
‘What’s next players will be suspended if they are misbehaving at home or watch a tv show that offends someone somewhere?’ asked another.
‘I am really sick if the AFL being the arbiter of community standards. I’ll decide what is right and wrong and I am quite capable of communicating with a club if I believe their players have breached those standards,’ posted yet another.
While the comments sections on social media were overwhelming against the AFL’s decision to punish the GWS players, the league did have some supporters.
‘AFL should have gone even harder here. The comments on this of people calling it ‘weak’ and ‘soft’ and ‘woke’ show how pathetic some people are. It’s disgraceful behaviour.’ posted one footy fan.
‘The AFL is clearly not ‘woke’ enough considering in 2024 alone we’ve had 3 people suspended for homophobic language, and players making jokes about and acting out rape, slavery and terrorism. Each time people get mad at the AFL for punishing them as well,’ pointed out another.
‘If you think these punishment are wrong then you are the problem. Completely justified by the AFL,’ added another.
