AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan has fronted the media today to respond to growing fan unrest as to a supposed crackdown on fan behaviour at AFL venues over the last few weeks.
In a tense and, at times, almost fiery press conference, McLachlan offered frustratingly little detail in his opening address. The CEO made note of record AFL attendances up to this point of the season and reiterated his belief of passionate fans and barracking being integral to the game.
But much of his conference revolved around stock standard sentiments about fans needing to feel safe and free to “be themselves” at the football and the AFL trying to “get the balance right” on fan enjoyment and fan safety.
While he did apologise to fans if they felt “there [had] been an overcorrection” in security presence – promising feelings of fan intimidation at matches will end – he continued to insist there had been no crackdown on the AFL’s part and deflecting several questions from journalists as being “for the venues” to answer.
McLachlan also incredulously claimed he’d not been aware of any fan unrest over the situation until recent days.
All in all, he very much failed to provide the clarity fans have been seeking after a controversial few weeks.
McLachlan also spoke of Jeff Kennett’s questionable comments as to security guards being “new arrivals” at his press conference, claiming he’d made it clear to him that he found the comments unacceptable and that the Hawthorn president “regretted” those comments.
However, this flies in the face of comments made by Kennett on breakfast radio this morning. Speaking to SEN, Kennett said “Did I go too far? Well, some of you might say so, but I’m certainly not backing away from it at all. I’m not going to be driven into the ground by some sort of bloody political correctness.”
Fan behaviour has received increased media attention this season, with footage of physical altercations between fans at AFL matches being made public at an increased rate.
If the league had come out three weeks ago and said something along the lines of; “due to increased instances of physical violence at AFL matches, we are increasing security to ensure AFL grounds are a safe place for all spectators,” nobody would have batted an eye.
But fans have been left confused as to what the perceived increase in security is all about after one spectator was ejected from Round 12’s Carlton-Brisbane game for abusing an umpire, while some cheer squads have also claimed they’ve been subject to undercover surveillance all season.
In the absence of any official messaging, it appears the AFL have completely lost control of the narrative and allowed disgruntled fans to connect their own dots on the matter.
Gillon McLachlan had a perfect opportunity to come out today and unreservedly apologise for compromising the match day experience for the game’s most passionate fans and explain just why security behaviour had changed so drastically recently.
But he completely missed that opportunity, opting for safe, sterile corporate speak and getting bogged down arguing ultimately irrelevant points of detail with journalists (although the press contingent deserves some criticism for pointlessly trying to corner the CEO on the AFL integrity unit’s rumoured Jaidyn Stephenson investigation).
In any case, no matter where you stand on the AFL fan behaviour saga, this was clearly a free hit for McLachlan and he’s just left it for the keeper.
For mine, I’m supportive of a crackdown on targeted umpire abuse. Yelling from the stands, within the realms of reasonable language, is fine, but heading on down to the umpires’ tunnel to single them out (which is what saw the Carlton fan ejected) is not.
I’m also supportive of measures to eradicate physical violence at sporting events. That never has and never will have a place at any venue.
But what frustrates me – and just about everyone – is we still don’t know why the security crackdown took place.
Gil can say “it’s for the venues” all he wants, but if he doesn’t have the information the fans are crying out for, why call a press conference in the first place?
The only purpose today’s press conference seems to have served was for the AFL to be seen as doing something about the issue and, unfortunately, it’s not taken much for fans to see right through it.
deano
Roar Rookie
i like a good conspiracy theory every now and then.
deano
Roar Rookie
they've been bad at their job for a few years, but now it is even worse, hence the extra attention.
Christopher Wright
Guest
Has anyone here ever considered this crackdown is a distraction. Politicians do this all the time. The NRL do it with expansion or club culling. Whenever there is an issue that needs to be put to bed you come up with a distraction that takes people away from the real story. In this case it is the Adam Goodes racial vilification affair. The AFL needed that one put to bed. So what do they do. They enhance security. Create an issue that they can manage. Keep the pot boiling by holding press conference's like this where they say nothing and everyone gets more upset. Then remove the security clampdown and everyone is happy again. But most importantly the Adam Goode's Racial Vilification affair is now long in the revision mirror.
Scano
Guest
Well said Macca. My value set can and is different to other peoples in the community. The AFL wants us to follow their standards then publish those standards. This will protect me from inadvertently offending someone at the footy.
1DER
Guest
The issue is not with crowd behaviour but with the policing of same. The AFL is unable to make a statement on virtually every matter that confronts the league. The Jayden Stephenson case is another example. Could have made a huge statement with regard to betting on AFL games and suspended him for the season. There is a reason why on the AFL web site you are unable to make comment with regard to daily articles.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
Adam Simpson has apologized to Freo and the Brayshaw family. Why can't Vardy do it ? Matti6x6 usually want's to turf idiot's out, doubt on this one.
Col from Brissie
Roar Guru
Doesn’t look like it Jonboy.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
Matti 6x6 - Is Vardy a respectable adult ? Has he any '' Common Sense '' good role model or should he be ''Turfed Out " as well ?
Luc Knight
Roar Rookie
I take on board that this is a complex issue, but you are assuming a lot by saying it's the race card. I couldn't care if they were from Pluto. I think it's fair to say the AFL has limited influence in Middle Eastern communities and perhaps that is the reason these, I've no doubt, fine men are making mis-judgements about what is acceptable. You're the one getting riled up about race. And just to set the record straight Spruce Moose, I married into a Middle Eastern (Turkish Muslim) family and have been happily ensconsed in that culture for 15 years. So the whole "racist" line is a bit lost. I think you'd be surprised by how accurate and informed my views around this are. I would hazard, more informed than yours.
Macca
Roar Rookie
Mattician - I really don't understand how you can't get these simple concepts. We, as a society, created laws to enshrine morality. We created the because everyone had different standards so we codified what was acceptable. If we were able to rely on people moral compass and common sense to deliver the best outcome there would have been no need to create laws. This is the same principle here, you can't rely on hundreds of thousands of people attending the game each week to have common sense or have the same standards so we need to codify what the standards are. As for your dismissal of ideology, ideology is developed from a moral base, they are both a set of principles you use to guide your decision making. If you believe that fairness and equity is a moral right then you will be ideologically aligned to higher taxation for higher income earners. Others morality is based around the rights of the individual. The fact that we had 10% of people vote Green and 6.5% vote for either Clive Palmer or Pauline Hanson at the last election shows that morally we aren't all the same. Finally "If you wish to believe morals aren’t hard set from multiple generations then just research and you’ll find you’re off the mark." yet just above you are claiming morals are learned in school and not based on our various experiences and upbringings? And you only have to look at how "morality" changed from the 50's to the 60's to see that different generations have different views on morality. Even if you went back to the 80's do you think Tinder would work in the time of HIV? And I am not wanting another layer of control, the layer is already there, I simply want be told what it is.
Peter
Guest
So if I yell that you, or your partner, or your son or daughter, that they’re a whatever maggoty whatever, neither you nor they will be offended?
Macca
Roar Rookie
Standards may have fallen (although I would posit that the media have simply beaten up more of the unacceptable behaviour rather than an actual regression and we are a long way in front of where we were even 10 years ago let alone 20 or 30) but none of the incidents of recent weeks are below what has long been established as an acceptable standard. I am more than happy for the AFL to act to increase standards of behaviour at the football, I go to support my team and liken going to the footy simply to abuse the umpires, opponents or even your own team to going along simply to marvel at the skills of the tagger, but if you want to affect change you need to make the case, articulate what the change is and why it is being made. History has shown that when the AFL has taken leadership on raising the level of crowd behaviour they have been successful and taken the supporters with them, this time they have completely botched it, shown no leadership and have supporters up in arms.
User
Roar Rookie
Think you need a missus ( a goodun not the usual scrubbers you get) because pulling it so much has made you go blind.
User
Roar Rookie
No I would argue and am confident that data would back me up that standards have fallen in the last couple of seasons. How you are expected to behave hasn't changed and the stadium doesn't need to inform over any implementation in policy. Use common sense avoid any consequences and retain your freedom and dignity. Demanding to be told whether your behaviour is ok when you're an adult is dumbing Australia down to a submissive society lacking independence. I get the point you make, I just find my headshakes with a moribund feeling.
Kewl
Guest
This comment has been removed for breaching The Roar's comments policy.
Macca
Roar Rookie
Once again you miss the point, people have been operating under the guidelines of acceptable behaviour at the football for years. Now people are being warned and kicked out while still well within those very same guidelines. So either the guidelines have changed, in which case the AFL should let people know of the higher standards expected or the security guards have overstepped their bounds.
Nick
Roar Guru
if you say so.
User
Roar Rookie
I never missed the point, if you remember I said people are aware of what is acceptable walking down the street and that will be different to what is acceptable in their homes. People are clued on enough to operate in guidelines of acceptable behaviour we all now, if you do anything in public you are aware on acceptable behaviour, if you need more guidelines on how to behave then that's the scarier issue.
Big Daddy
Guest
A lot of these security guards work at a lot of different venues and what is acceptable at some is not acceptable at others. Because of the nature of their work they can get a little bit heavy handed. They obviously need to be trained in all sorts of crowd behaviour at sporting venues not just throwing drunk people out of hotels. Also it's pretty easy to get a security guards licence and most companies tend to employ people with big physique s.
Parkside Darren
Roar Rookie
So you don’t trust any corporate leaders as a rule