Right: Collingwood's Nicky Winmar was one of the first Aboriginal players to call attention to racist calls and taunts from football crowds.
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Background information
(The timeline of AFL-related racial abuse incidents was taken from an Age report titled 'Infamous AFL racism incidents' published on April 11, 2017. The full text can be accessed at http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/infamous-afl-racism-incidents-20170411-gviw4p.html
The information regarding regulations prohibiting racial vilification is largely drawn from the AFL Vilification Framework. The full text of this document can be accessed at s.afl.com.au/staticfile/AFL%20Tenant/AFL/Files/Respect%20and%20Responsibility/AFL_Vilification_Policy.pdf)
Instances of AFL-related racial abuse over two and a half decades
1993: St Kilda's Nicky Winmar lifts his jumper and points to his skin after copping racial abuse from Collingwood's crowd at Victoria Park. "People forget that words have a big impact. They can lift a person or destroy a person. So that day I responded by saying to those people, and I still say it today: 'I'm black and I'm proud'," Winmar later said.
1995: Essendon's Michael Long is racially taunted by Collingwood's Damian Monkhorst during the Anzac Day match. Long made an official complaint which led to mediation, after which the pair shook hands - though Long remained clearly upset. The controversy led the AFL to create its racial anti-vilification policy.
1999: St Kilda's Peter Everitt racially abuses Melbourne's Scott Chisholm during a game. Everitt is suspended for four games, donates $20,000 to a charity of Chisholm's choice and undertakes a racial awareness training program.
2011: Western Bulldogs' Justin Sherman racially vilifies an unidentified Gold Coast Suns opponent. Sherman is banned for four games, ordered to attend an education program and pay $5000 to a charity chosen by the Suns.
2012: The AFL's national community engagement manager Jason Mifsud claims Adelaide's recruitment manager Matthew Rendell suggested clubs may adopt a policy of only recruiting Aboriginal players with at least one white parent. Rendell apologises and resigns, saying his comments were taken out of context.
2013: Sydney's Adam Goodes is called an ape by a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter during a game. Goodes points the girl out to security, saying he was distressed by the comment but adds: "People need to get around her. She's 13, she's uneducated."
2014: A 70-year-old spectator is reported to police for making racist comments to Sydney Swans players Lance Franklin and Goodes during a match against Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.
2014: North Melbourne's Majak Daw is racially abused by a spectator during a match against Hawthorn in Launceston. The male spectator is evicted from the ground.
2014: West Coast's Nic Naitanui is racially abused on Twitter. The offender pleads guilty to three counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence and is banned from creating a Twitter account.
2015: Sydney's Goodes is frequently booed by spectators. Believing the jeering to be racist, Goodes steps down from playing but returns after widespread support. He retires at the end of the season.
2016: A banana is thrown at Adelaide's Eddie Betts by a female Port Adelaide supporter during a game. "A banana being thrown at an indigenous man is unambiguously racist," AFL chief Gillon McLachlan says. Port suspend the woman's club membership indefinitely.
2017: Adelaide's Betts is racially abused by a Port fan during a game, and by another Port supporter on social media. Port's Paddy Ryder is also racially vilified by a Crows supporter during the same game.
Anti-vilification regulations in the AFL pertaining to players
The AFL has undertaken a wide range of measures to create an inclusive competition. Many of its strategies are educative. Its anti-vilification regulations regarding players centre on Rule 35.
Rule 35: Discrimination and Racial and Religious Vilification
The purview of the AFL Player Rules extends only to those involved in Australian football at the AFL competition level.
Rule 35.1 Prohibited Conduct states:
No person subject to these Rules shall act towards or speak to any other person in a manner, or engage in any other conduct which threatens, disparages, vilifies or insults another person (the person vilified) on any basis, including but not limited to a person's race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, special ability/disability or sexual orientation, preference or identity.
Anti-vilification regulations in the AFL pertaining to members and officials
Clause 4.1 of the Vilification & Discrimination Section of the Member Protection Policy states:
No league participant or Club Official shall engage in conduct which may reasonably be considered to incite hatred towards, contempt for, ridicule of or discrimination against a person or group of persons on the ground of their race, religion, gender, colour, sexual preference, orientation or identity, or special ability/disability.
Measures taken to control the behaviour of fans
In recent years a number of Australian Rules clubs, at junior, semi-professional and professional levels, have established spectator codes of conduct. For example,
Port Adelaide implemented a spectator code of conduct in 2014 'for all its members and supporters to ensure Adelaide Oval provides a family friendly environment at its games'.
Among the sanctions that clubs can impose is the immediate eviction of the offending fan from the stadium.
Clubs can also impose bans on club members for a particular number of seasons, for an indeterminate period or permanently.
A club can also make a member's capacity to attend its home ground matches conditional on the offending spectator taking part in a racial awareness education program.