sidelined

Idiotic boofheaded sexists like Willie Mason bring the entire game of NRL into disrepute, and make me wonder what about that game exacerbates such behaviour. But I had best remove the beam in mine own eye, and look dispassionately upon my code.

During the West Coast Eagles derby with the Fremantle Dockers on the weekend Des Headland, a tempestuous but high-performing Dockers player, beloved of Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy, punched the living daylights out of Eagles player Adam Selwood. The reason? I know we should wait until the outcome of the tribunal cases, but the story is is reported in a number of news outlets today. [Much to the distress of Selwood, who has flown to Melbourne to attend the tribunal and is considering legal action against media outlets who reported Headland's allegations. Five acknowledges that bloggers should be equally careful, so has edited the post accordingly.]

It appears [from the testimony of the umpire on the day] that Selwood noticed Headland has a tattoo of his daughter on his arm. To put it into polite language, Selwood then sledged his opponent by remarking that he had sexual congress with the subject of the tattoo the night before. Headland [says he] informed Selwood that the tattoo was of his six year-old daughter, and Selwood repeated the sledge, and added the word ’slut’. Headland exploded and punched Selwood on two separate occasions, [as well as making serious threats to an umpire]and faces his own tribunal charges. He is looking at a long suspension because he has a bad track record, notwithstanding the likely defence of provocation. However, Selwood will be in an extraordinary hearing quite soon, and is facing very serious charges. See Realfooty for up-to-date newspaper coverage.

The Eagles keep winning, despite having had a year of scandals. At least three senior players have allegations of serious drug use against them – one nearly died after overdosing on an unnamed substance – and their second-best player, Ben Cousins, is in rehab. Nothing seems to have been done to address these problems – in fact, the Cousins family is angry with the club for ignoring their sons’ predicament for a number of years. Then came the Selwood-Headland incident. Immediately after that outburst, Michael Braun used the f-word when addressing the crowd. West Coast fined him $500, infuriating the AFL, who multiplied that fine by 10.

As Caroline Wilson says, West Coast ‘have turned disturbing social behaviour into an art form.’ And this instance really is disturbing – it is sexist and puerile, like Willie’s taunting of the journo. Sometimes you can take a positive out of such events – the sledging of Essendon’s Michael Long for his Aboriginality by the Collingwood Club resulted in a new awareness at AFL headquarters, and was marked by that glorious moment when Nicky Winmar lifted his jersey to show off his black skin. I don’t see a positive here [nor do I see a chance of mediation, which is what the Eagles hope for]. This case touches on the darkness of child abuse, as well as men’s roles as fathers and protectors. That is such an explosive issue that I doubt it will be raised again, or dealt with properly. But I hope that it is dealt with. Emphatically.

The winner-takes-all mentality that is so often celebrated by sports journos and commentators can have some very serious side effects. We can’t expect testosterone-pumped athletes in their early 20s to be angels – after all, their physical strength and risk-taking is what makes them great players, and is the same combination that makes for great soldiers. But there is a line, and it is up to the elders in the club and the administration to make sure the boys don’t cross it, and that they understand that fans look up to them, hoping to see excellence, striving and character.

I don’t mind if my players have feet of clay, but if sport is played without any courtesy, decency and empathy it is dehumanised. If women and children are collateral damage we are all – spectators or players – losers. Those are not the sorts of games I ever wish to play, or watch.

[Yuck! As if to make my point for me, the article cited above quotes Peter 'Spida' Everitt, who was the person who sledged Long, and has urged mediation.

"The best way to handle this would have been Selwood and Headland in a mediation kind of format," Everitt said on radio SEN. "It would have given Selwood the opportunity to realise what it meant by saying that and that's what happened when I had my racial vilification. I learnt a lot out of the process.

"You can go a little bit too far but like if he said it to me, I've got 13, seven and five-year-old daughters and it wouldn't have worried me at all — I would have laughed it off. But other people take it to heart and until you sit down with the person and they explain what it actually means and how hurt they are, you're never going to realise."

So it wouldn't have worried Spida? Well, it would have worried me, and I'm offended that anyone could think that such a remark is not worth worrying about. Like I said, women and children are not collateral damage in this sort of sport.]

UPDATE: The Tribunal found that Selwood did not make any slur against Headland’s daughter, and Headland was not given any penalty, because his punches were deemed to have occurred after extraordinary provocation. Work the logic of that out if you can, because I can’t.