Australian football is fast becoming a bigger joke than the British police. First, Orwellian “Behavioural Awareness” officers were patrolling the stands, then fans were being ejected for calling an umpire a “bald-headed flog” (probably the least insulting thing I’ve ever heard said about an umpire). Now, zealous security officers are deciding that they are the umpires.
This is the bizarre moment an AFL security guard had to be stopped from running on to the pitch to stop a fight between players.
A brawl broke about between North Melbourne’s Jack Ziebell and Greater Western Sydney’s Heath Shaw at the Blundstone Arena in Hobart, Tasmania on Sunday.
As they wrestled on the ground, a security guard stepped on to the pitch to break them up.
It’s long been understood by nearly everyone that what happens on the field is a world away from what is allowed anywhere else. The biff has always been a semi-accepted part of the game. My own dad was at the notorious 1945 “bloodbath” Grand Final, where Carlton captain Ken Hands “fainted” next to the Swans’ Jack “Basher” Williams. But in the 120 year history of the AFL, only one player has ever been charged (and convicted) for assault.
Still, this is a game whose highest accolade is “Best and Fairest”. While Aussie Rules is a hard, aggressive game of full body contact, where tackles occasionally get carried away, it’s always been understood that all-out violence is beyond the pale. Even so, everyone knows that’s the umpires’, and if necessary the tribunal’s, matter to deal with. Not some mall cop in a hi-vis vest.
Former player Garry Lyon said the guard’s actions were ‘beyond the pale’.
‘They are supposed behavioural experts, they’re not football experts,’ he told Fox Footy.
‘That fella has just made the worst decision… That’s so laughable that you can’t defend it… they are supposed to be trained.’
Former Brisbane Lions star Jonathan Brown added: ‘It’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it before. That is absolutely ridiculous.’
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Jeff Kennett has a fair idea where at least some of this nonsense is coming from.
Former Victorian Premier and Hawthorn club president Jeff Kennett is in hot water over claims security guards can’t police AFL crowds appropriately because they’re “new arrivals” to this country.
Kennett said on Monday that security services used in Melbourne at the MCG and Marvel Stadium are further destabilising the situation by not being aware of what constitutes crossing the line of acceptable fan behaviour…“I’m not being racist when I say this, but when I saw some of the footage, the people who are making judgments while they wear these authoritative coats, are not people who appear to have a great knowledge of our game,” he told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell.
“And yet they make judgments about what’s correct and not correct.”
Naturally, the “woke” brigade erupted into screaming mee-mees over Kennett’s plain-spoken statement. The “progressive” multi-cult are so drunk on their own self-rigtheous nonsense that they really believe that anyone is “100% Aussie” the moment they step off the boat.
But Kennett is right. If Jeff Kennett were to move to India and put on a sarong, nobody would for a second labor under the delusion that he was “100% Indian”, with a complete understanding of sub-continental culture and social mores. This is no less true of Australia.
Kennett is also right that the AFL is being swamped by left-wing political correctness.
“The AFL have done a great number of very good things in developing our code. But they have allowed themselves to become the sort of social benchmark for every social issue in the community,” Kennett said.
“Whether it is same sex marriage, whether it is racism, whether it is crowd behaviour. That’s not their job.
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The degeneration of Australian sport into a left-wing garden party is also another sad example of the Long March through the institutions. Having taken over university departments such as Communications and Media Studies, left-wing academics are churning out an army of indoctrinated graduates who go on to be the “media officers”, “HR managers” and “corporate communications managers” of big business – especially the AFL.