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Rendell raised a good point, albeit with a bad choice of words

Roar Pro
23rd March, 2012
1

In what has been a massive week for the AFL, some may not be aware of the racism saga surrounding the Adelaide Crows and their former senior recruiter Matt Rendell.

The story started with Rendell holding a meeting with indigenous officer Jason Misfud and another senior official. They were discussing the seriousness of indigenous footballers not being able to adjust to the cosmopolitan and mainstream Australian lifestyle, in light of players taking leaves of absence to deal with “personal issues”.

Rendell said that it was getting to the point where recruiters will start to only recruit indigenous footballers on the proviso that they have one white parent.

Now, I can see why people took offence to this. Matt’s words were reckless in nature and weren’t thoroughly thought through.

A few days after Rendell resigned, he broke his silence, claiming that he isn’t a racist and that his words were taken out of context.

I live in Adelaide, so it has been massive news over the past week, dominating newspapers and the local news.

Although I understand the Adelaide Crows urging Rendell to resign, I believe he raised a good point.

There have been many indigenous players going back home citing “personal issues” (Austin Wonnaemirri, Troy Taylor and Liam Jurrah to name a few).

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It’s a deal breaker for many AFL clubs to recruit them, due to recruiters being under pressure to pick the right players. If the player has an unstable personal life then it’s in the interest of the football club to act the way they see fit.

The onus of becoming a bona fide AFL footballer is on the player themselves, and not the clubs. Then again, footballers with personal issues and other disadvantages need assistance to reach the acceptable levels of professionalism required for AFL football.

But where should AFL clubs draw the line?

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