See the barrackers are pouting

June 21, 2019 — 8.00pm

This weekend should be for celebrating whats good in Australian sport. Mostly, that means sitting up into the small hours waiting for Ash Barty, the Matildas and the men's cricket team strut their stuff. At least in our lounge rooms, crowd behaviour wont be an issue. Its the space in which no-one can hear you scream.

But while were waiting, lets revisit the footy grandstands and all the seething and indignation, and remember where and how the furore began. The early season was marred by a series of brawls between fans inside stadiums. Perhaps they were more frequent than previously, perhaps simply more seen because of smart phones and social media. To the innocents caught up in them, even one was one too many.

A common complaint was that security were slow to react. Duly, security reacted more quickly, then over-reacted. The AFL found itself trying to control crowds, control crowd controllers, and control the uncontrollable crowd on media, social and otherwise. CEO Gil McLachlan was slow to react, and Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett over-reacted and so cruelled his own argument, and words flew, and the seething and indignation grew, and everyone booed someone else and all booed the AFL. Booing has become a self-contained sport.

But (and Im writing this from under a bed) it would be disingenuous not to admit that there is an issue. There is an ugly element out there, and it can be overbearing. It might be endemic in sports crowds, but that doesnt mean it should be shrugged off. In Australia, to "barrack" used to mean for a team or cause, in the rest of the world against. Now the distinction is less clear.

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A release of emotions is fine and even cathartic, but it cannot be without limits. It is one thing to be enthusiastically loud, another to be obnoxious. Abuse, non-stop shouting and repeated swearing all can make for an unpleasant day at the footy. You dont have to be giving voice to any of the -isms to be offensive. The loudmouths say they have a right to be loud, to say what they like, when they like. The less loud mouths either bite their tongues or cannot be heard.

So two classes of victims emerge, those who prefer to watch footy in a less aggravated environment, but have no say in it, and those who have all the say, but are aggrieved when they are asked to tone it down. In his landscape, a man cautioned after yelling to an umpire that he is a “bald headed flog” becomes a martyr when at best he is an example and really is a bit of a flog himself.

In all this, the influence of social media can be discerned, fortifying and emboldening. Once, individuals took offence, in isolation. Now offence-taking is an industry. See what happened this week when Hawthorn announced that for Friday nights match against Sydney, they would wear warm-up jackets sporting No 37 as their token of belated appreciation of Adam Goodes.

It was a modest gesture, yet it prompted such a vile backlash on social media that the club was moved to issue this plea: "The Hawthorn players have made this decision out of respect and support for a fellow star of our game. Please continue that respect when commenting on this post." You cannot doubt that the same bilious rage is abroad in crowds, which is how we got here.