Don't know if it is just me, I find that rather racist.
Very racist. They should have named the clubs so we can all have our say to them about what we think!
Does God believe in Atheists?
Exactly, I am confident we are not one of them though.Originally Posted by goswannie14
Indigenous players have given great service too the Sydney Swans in recent times, and I believe to the wider AFL. They potentially have a greater cultural gap to bridge to join an AFL family especially if they are coming from a remote community. This aside it would be a very sad if indigenous players were being overlooked both from the perspective of the game and the perspective of setting an example to their community. IT is hard to imagine two better ambassadors for our club than Micky O and Goodsey, and while I can't speak from an Aboriginal perspective they must be highly respected and great role models in the wider Indigenous community.
There is enough racism in the wider community, sport is often a place where the playing field can be evened out. The code should be embracing these people, recognising the unique talent many of them posses and drafting them on their merits not avoiding them due to bias. The reward to clubs, the code, the indigenous community and the community as a whole is too great to allow this bias into the game. I trust a recruiting bias is not present at the Swans.
News this morning days it was Steve Trapp from the Crows.
I heard it was Matt Rendell from the Crows. A very bad culture at the club I would suggest.
Does God believe in Atheists?
Well Matt Rendell from the Crows resigned over it. To me, it's a cop out by those clubs - there are plenty of clubs that draft kids of aboriginal descent and have no trouble whatsoever with them because they provide them with the necessary support networks to help with the adjustment.
I'm on the Chandwagon!!!
If you cannot compete for the premiership, it's better to be young and exciting than middle-aged and dowdy.
I thought Demetriou put it to bed pretty well last night On the Couch.
Today's a draft of your epitaph
The truth is that some of the Victorian AFL clubs were initially resistant to drafting Indigenous players. Two of those clubs were Hawthorn and Collingwood. Collingwood at one stage had such a racist culture that the AFL set the 'Rules of Behaviour' and 'Anti-Racism' Policy to answer problems caused by certain Collingwood players. Look how both clubs have now benefited from the drafting Indigenous players. With Hawthorn it wasn't about racism so much as some of the brains trust at the club in a certain period just couldn't see how they were to accommodate Indigenous players within their structure. The Hawks had never had a history of playing Indigenous players.
Some clubs like Essendon, Swans, Lions, Bullies, Cats, Tigers, Port and funnily Melbourne have had a proud history of playing Indigenous players. For clubs like Kangas and Carlton it came later and it was the direct influence of one Ronald Dale Barrassi. The Eagles and Dockers played Indigenous players from the start and so did Adelaide but Adelaide seems to be regressing into that middle class Adelaidean disease, Racism.
Our club has a very proud history of playing indigenous players. We have had 17 Indigenous players who played for the Swans since 1935. There needs to be a bit of perspective here in the early days before the AFL not many of the Indigenous boys would travel down and VFL recruiting wasn't to the standard of the AFL. From 1935 to 1966 players could earn far more by staying in the bush if they were in the right spot than playing VFL. This didn't apply to all Indigenous people I realise as some were still working for slave wages as the Wave Hill strike in 1966 showed.
But if you were working for a good land owner or on the mines you earned far more than the VFL Clubs paid. So many country and bush footballers, not just indigenous, didn't bother to come down to Melbourne to play. Therefore the footy stock of good players both Indigenous and non-indigenous was very limited until the '70's and '80's. The huge money clubs like North Melbourne, Carlton and Richmond paid players was very alluring and we saw a growth in interstate and rural recruiting during this period.
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