The football community has rallied around Eddie Betts after the Adelaide star was racially abused on social media on Saturday night.
The 295-game veteran led the Indigenous-based Deadly team in Friday night's AFLX tournament at Marvel Stadium.
Prior to the tournament, players arrived in style, and Adelaide later posted a picture to their Instagram account of Betts and Hawthorn veteran Shaun Burgoyne arriving.
However, Betts spotted a comment reading "monkey see monkey do", circled it in red, and shared it to his Instagram story, commenting on the screengrab: "When will it stop why can’t we just play footy. Why can’t we just all get along."
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The user later deleted the comment, and the account is no longer active.
Betts is the proud son of a Nunga man and a Gubrun mother, and he is now a father of four and is considered one the league's great Indigenous stars.
It's not the first time he has been subject of racial abuse. In 2016, a Port fan - who was later banned from Power games indefinitely - threw a banana at Betts.
In 2018 - a week after Indigenous Round - an unidentified user on social media replied to one of Betts' posts: "Why with a monkey".
After the latest incident, Betts quickly gained widespread support from the AFL community, from players to clubs to executives.
Former Crows teammate and fellow AFLX team leader Patrick Dangerfield posted Betts' screengrab to his own Instagram account.
Geelong star Dangerfield, the AFLPA president, was concise yet hard-hitting in his response to the racial comment: "'Disgusting. Cowardly. Racist".
Burgoyne praised Dangerfield for taking a stance, and criticised the deleted user on Twitter: "Just a coward sitting behind a keyboard".
Just a coward sitting behind a keyboard. pic.twitter.com/z6Ev8Cq0va
— Shaun Burgoyne (@ShaunBurgoyne9) February 23, 2019
The Crows released a statement later on Saturday night: "We strongly condemn any form of racial vilification and consider such behaviour abhorrent and disgusting."
We strongly condemn any form of racial vilification and consider such behaviour abhorrent and disgusting #weflyasone
— Adelaide Crows (@Adelaide_FC) February 23, 2019
Last week, Port Adelaide director of Aboriginal programs Paul Vandenbergh hosted over 70 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players at the AFL's Indigenous All Stars Summit.
Betts was also present at the summit, and he and wife Anna hosted 'Mob Nights' for Adelaide's indigenous players.
An article by AFL.com.au's Lee Gaskin summed up the importance of the summit: "The AFL's indigenous players were among family... there is a tightknit brotherhood between those who represent their people with pride each and every week on football grounds and on television screens across the country... bringing everyone together only strengthened those bonds."
The abuse of Betts hit a nerve with Vandenbergh.
"We have to speak up because the day we don’t speak up for things that matter is the day our freedom truly ends. It starts with every single one of us drawing a line in the sand and saying enough is enough," he wrote on Twitter.
We have to speak up... because the day we don’t speak up for things that matter is the day our freedom truly ends. It starts with every single one of us drawing a line in the sand and saying enough is enough. #IStandWithEddie https://t.co/YxFpIPvxvR
— Pauly Vandenbergh (@BrusVandenbergh) February 23, 2019
AFLPA CEO Paul Marsh also condemned the incident, and retweeted may players' concerns, illustrating the wide scale of the hurt.
More disgraceful, cowardly, racist behaviour directed at one of our game’s finest people. There is simply no excuse for this garbage. Our indigenous players deserve so much better. pic.twitter.com/FnRa1A9iRQ
— Paul Marsh (@Marsh_Paul) February 23, 2019
