Wingard leads charge in calls for govt crackdown on racist online trolls

Guest Author Published June 2, 2022 at 3.38pm (AWST)

sport

The AFL may have put an end to crowd abuse at football grounds over the years, but racist fans are finding a loophole online to target Indigenous players.

Very few Aboriginal stars worthy of the attention of wide-eyed spectators have looked calmer running around than Chad Wingard does.

But the youngest Port Adelaide best and fairest winner - barely 21 at the time - and now senior Hawthorn campaigner shared insight into abuse away from a game.

Hawthorn released a social media video between the Sir Doug Nicholls rounds which highlighted how the experience of players after the game was not the same.

In line with the National Reconciliation Week theme of Be Brave, Make Change, coach Sam Mitchell talks about how he and his colleagues "pick apart the game", captain Ben McEvoy mentions he goes home to "cuddle his children", while Wingard tells he "receives racially vilifying comments on his social media platforms".

https://twitter.com/HawthornFC/status/1527518228389498881

Wingard said a number of his teammates have been copping it for years.

"It happens all the time - and you don't have to look too far if you want to find it on your extra DMs and if you know your Instagram," Wingard told ABC's Offsiders.

"I personally don't check it anymore because I know what's going to be in there.

"But a couple players check theirs and (the fans have) commented on their photos.

"So, we have said when is enough going to be enough and we have brought out this very powerful video content with the team involved to give some sort of perspective of what our AFL players go through."

Wingard is leading the charge to demand governments implement measures to ensure social media users have online identification, so authorities can trace racist offenders down.

"It used to be very much in your face in the 1980s, 90s like from what my dad went through, but now it is really sly and they're really trying to get away it with creating those fake accounts," Wingard said.

"Racism is still here and it's still alive, but I don't think we are going to give up until it's fully gone, and that may be a long journey and a long battle, but it's a fight worth fighting.

"You can always say that we want more, and we want to keep pushing that boundary, but there is still a lot of work to be done - not just in the AFL industry, but in Australia in general."