Good on Daisy Thomas and Collingwood

[R-1]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsartic...5/default.aspx

A COLLINGWOOD fan's 20-year club membership has been terminated by the club after he admitted to racially vilifying Gold Coast player Joel Wilkinson.

The incident took place in the fourth quarter of Sunday's match at the MCG and was witnessed by Collingwood midfielder Dale Thomas.

Thomas complained to his club after the match about the comments, which was supported by several Collingwood fans in the vicinity of the offender.

Collingwood CEO Gary Pert offered an apology to Wilkinson, who asked the AFL to make the matter public "in a bid to educate spectators about what is unacceptable crowd behaviour at AFL matches".

"On behalf of the entire Collingwood Football Club, I want to publicly apologise to Joel for what he experienced during the match against Collingwood on Sunday evening," Pert said.

"It is important that Joel knows that the behaviour of one Collingwood supporter is not a reflection of the views of the broader Collingwood community.

"I hope Joel is heartened by the strong leadership position that Dale Thomas took, which was supported by the crowd that witnessed the incident and then, ultimately, the football club itself."

A class act by everyone involved.

[ScottH]

yep, well done!!

[Kirkari]

Very impressed! Refusing to tolerate this behaviour sends a great message.

[ShockOfHair]

Collingwood might have spun this a little. Sounds like the other Collingwood fans played a more important role than Daisy in pinpointing the fan. But good news anyway.

[GongSwan]

In 50 odd years of going to football in it's various forms I'm yet to hear a racial taunt. One would think it was more common in the 60's etc, but I never heard any. The microscope has gotten bigger I suppose. It's unnecessary and not very original. If yr going to have ago at someone at least try to make it funny.

[Doctor]

Interesting comment GS. Five or six years ago I went to a Geelong v St Kilda game at Docklands as a neutral. I had travelled to Melbourne to see a Swans game the day before and went to the other game to check out the other venue. A St Kilda 'supporter' a few rows in front of me in the next bay made a very loud racially abusive comment directed at Gwilt from St Kilda (one of his own team's players) and I'll never forget the reaction from those around him. The whole area went deadly silent. I'm not close enough to know what was said directly to the person in question but it was very clear that the spectators themselves had shown this guy how out of line he was.