West Coast coach Adam Simpson has revealed the club has asked for police involvement to help quell the growing tide of vile social media abuse given to his players.
The AFL and its clubs have condemned abuse, particularly racial abuse, multiple times in recent years with life bans handed out last year to abusive fans at grounds.
It’s not just on the field though. Earlier this year Indigenous great Eddie Betts shared a confronting clip of a driver abusing his children and their friends as they were playing at home.
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But tracking down cowardly and often-anonymous social media users is much more difficult.
Simpson said on Monday night this season he has seen even more intense abuse, to the point that the Eagles have reached out to WA Police.
“Some of the abuse from, not the expert commentators and the football parts, that’s all there for us to understand and consume. But the private stuff, the online abuse some of our players have received this year has probably gone up to another level,” he said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“To the point where you need to get the police involved. We need to keep that in check as an industry, because that’s definitely not getting better.
“I’m not sure of the answer to that, because you can’t get them off their phones, but trying to support our players in that space has become a big part of our jobs.”
Source Agencies
