Australian netball great Liz Ellis believes there is glaring problem within the groping saga of Richmond player Mabior Chol.
The Commonwealth Games gold medallist stated that there was a "racial aspect" to the incident that had not "been appropriately addressed".
During the singing of the song following the Tiger's 41-point-win over Brisbane, teammates Jayden Short and Nick Vlastuin both indecently assaulted Chol on multiple occasions, both of which were in captured by cameras.
Richmond expected to release a statement later today @AFLcomau https://t.co/z2KPtBDK2P
— Mitch Cleary (@cleary_mitch) August 7, 2020
Speaking to Sports Sunday,ย Ellis said that there was more to the incident than just horseplay.
"You look at Mabior Chol, he's a junior player in that team. What is it saying about the power balance within that team?"
"And you can't get away from the fact that in this case, it's a couple of white men doing something to a black man. So it brings in the racial aspect of things."
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has come out and publicly condemned the actions of his players.
"We admit it's not a great look for the game and we're disappointed," said the two-time premiership coach to Fox Footy on Saturday.
"The fact of the matter is, we spoke about it about two days earlier, so we thought we had nipped it in the bud and then obviously yesterday happened and we had to deal with it again."
Mabior Chol himself made it clear via a club statement that he had "no issue whatsoever" with the incident and his teammates.
Former Collingwood premiership player Heritier Lumumba has shown his support of Chol, citing systemic racism as a cause of the incident.
1/ My heart goes out to Mabior Chol after watching the post-match, locker room footage; I feel for the young brother.
— Hรฉriter Lumumba (@iamlumumba) August 8, 2020
3/ In this particular instance, it further highlights its failure to protect the rights of African players. This should not have happened, and could have been prevented.
— Hรฉriter Lumumba (@iamlumumba) August 8, 2020
Meanwhile, Melbourne radio station Triple M is under fire after they released a parody of Richmond's club song, titled "We've Got Your Balls In Hand".
Who thought this was OK?
No wonder footy still has an image problem.
We clearly have a long way to go.#AFL #TripleM pic.twitter.com/rnBBTGQ7rD— Cheryl Critchley (@CherylCritchley) August 8, 2020
It was published on Saturday night but the promotional article and tweet relating to it have since been deleted from their social media platforms.
The AFL released a statement on Sunday, voicing their disappointment with the radio station.
โThe AFL contacted station management today to voice our concern at the content that was yesterday uploaded on their digital channels, and ensure they were aware that the AFL's position on the recent unacceptable and inappropriate behaviour by the players should be rebuked and not be celebratedโ.
