The night I finally lost the plot over those Milney comments

[Eastern]

This issue with Milney is much bigger than a club issue now. The AFL need to step in and say/do something (I won't be holding my breath). And lets NOT FORGET that its topical this week because of the misreporting by the Herald-Sun, MMM and Ch9. If the AFL is Fair Dinkum about respecting women & families they should act NOW. My guess is that the powers that be at the AFL are hoping that Milney retires at the end of this season because they don't want to/are scared to take on the Big Bully Boys of the media, as well as the Big Bully Clubs of the AFL !!

[SaintPav]

We were in M10 and yes we had security at least three times and they did their job, and the cops at least twice.

This what I sent off to the Hawthorn FC this afternoon, not that I expect a response. I know it's long winded but if any of you want to send something similar the address is hawthorn@hawthornfc.com.au

My names is ********and in my 47 years of attending football games I have never before found it necessary to contact a football club about the behaviour of one club's supporters, but after last night's supporters I decided enough was enough. If this is what the "Family Club" Hawthorn Football Club represents then god help all other AFL supporters.

I was seated along with other female St Kilda supporters in Section M 10 in the Southern Stand, in the back row. Therefore we had directly behind us the standing area full of Hawthorn supporters, they being the ones who create and yell out the chants which will no doubt make them identifiable to your club straight away. It is quite clear no other right thinking Hawthorn supporter would stand alongside because of their behaviour.

I start off with the comments coming from directly behind me with Stephen Milne approaching the football to hear the comment from behind me of "rapist" . To turn around to find myself looking into the face of a twelve to thirteen year old boy who had made the comment was bad enough, to see his ten year old sister not far away, made it worse and then to listen to both parents justifying the comment as "it was a joke mate" made the whole situation even more appalling. Subsequently I spoke to the MCG attendant who requested Security to attend and speak to these people which they did. I thank the gentleman from Securecorp and the police who had to attend later on at least two occasion to speak to these people as they did their jobs and everything I asked of them.

As for the Hawthorn supporters behind us, for the rest of the game, they continued making made futher comments directed at my two St Kilda friends as welll as two other ladies further along in the row, baiting and taunting us for the entire game, by directing the word "bitches" from the female supporters in that standing room area directed or dropping down within earshot of my friends delivering comments like "well at least Buddy isn't a rapist" or "at least Cyril isn't a rapist" for the rest of the game. We were offered the opportunity to move, but out of sheer principal we chose not to move as it was our home game, we have paid to sit in these allocated seats, so we stayed to the end and we didn't slink away from these low life supporters.
We stood and faced them and maintained eye contact with this group of pathetic imbeciles at the end of the game and as my friend said to me "we may have lost the game, but we didn't lose the battle"

So I make my approach to your club for the following reason-
I do not accept that you will not know who these supporters are. They are clearly identifable to each other and anyone who has had to deal with them either at the MCG or Etihad Stadium where we've had trouble with them before. Somewhere they will be on a Hawthorn blog, rallying and organising their members to meet in a certain section and plan the vile comments in order to antagonise the opposition supporters. They are clearly organised and lead for the want of a better term by somebody and everybody loves to make a contribution to the taunting of opposition supporters.

I do not accept that as a club you will say that you are unable to deal with the matter or them as individual supporters. I know that at St Kilda when we've had issues re opposition supporters in our area, emails have been sent to supporters reminding them of the terms and conditions of St Kilda membership and that the club has the right to revoke allocated seating. So maybe you can consider warning these people with revokation of their memberships and access to any finals.

I believe the Hawthorn Football Club has a moral and corporate responsibility to deal with the people either by a representative attending M10 for a game and having a look themselves or printing off fliers and handing them out to these members reminding them their behaviour is a blot on the entire Hawthorn Football Club. There are people like me and my fellow supporters have decided these people are worse than the average Collingwood supporter which is saying something! You have to do something to address this issue and not look to the police or Securecorp to do your dirty work in dealing with these people.

I notice there is an upcoming Melbourne vs Hawthorn game and it is Melbourne's home game. Do you not think these people will not use the late Jim Stynes to try and provoke the Melbourne supporters who sit in M10? I have no doubt they will has they have no moral boundaries as to what is proper behaviour.

In conclusion my final observation about these people, is this. The chant about "Cyril" something like "Oh Cyril, we just wanna be, just like you" No they don't. No they don't to jump into Cyril Rioli's skin, and live his life experience both through living in an Aboriginal community and dealing with racist comments from other team's supporters and yes probably some St Kilda supporters as well . They just want to back slap him and say what a great bloke he is, but underneath, I would question their integrity not to start racist comments should he ever leave Hawthorn and pull on another jumper. Because they would be the first to hurl racist comments at him if they had the chance and then they would show their "true colours"

On very angry St Kilda supporter.

Great letter and well done for standing up for what you believe in. A+++++

[Superstar]

No way, some hawk's fans are bad but Pies the worst by far, no ethics or morals whatsoever.

Disagree, despite sterotypes, the hawks and bombers fans have the Pies covered from my experience.

[tweedaletomanning]

Demetriou will only do something about it if it's in HIS best interests only.

Besides he is too busy with his movie that's just come out!

[Dr Spaceman]

I’ve thought long and hard about posting the following as it may lead to people misconstruing my words and forming incorrect opinions about me. It may even lead to people uttering the other despised “R” word.

However it’s something I’ve believed for a long time.

When you consider Milne has been putting up with this stuff since 2004 and it’s actually getting worse.

When you consider the disgraceful Malthouse incident which took it to a new level.

And when you consider how abhorrent the abuse is, especially in a sport promoting itself to families.

When you consider all that I am absolutely stunned that the AFL has not stepped in.

And it is my view that if Milne was an indigenous player then they would have indeed stepped in a fair while ago.

I’m not knocking what the AFL does for the indigenous players, far from it.

However I think Milne is being left to his own devices on this because he is a little pasty white bloke from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. And that’s simply not good enough, especially when you consider the effects on his family and on parents attending games with their kids.

I may well be wrong. However I can’t imagine an indigenous player and his family having to put up with 8 years of this rubbish without the AFL displaying its paternal side.

It’s about time they stood up and did something for Stephen.

[Eastern]

I’ve thought long and hard about posting the following as it may lead to people misconstruing my words and forming incorrect opinions about me. It may even lead to people uttering the other despised “R” word.

However it’s something I’ve believed for a long time.

When you consider Milne has been putting up with this stuff since 2004 and it’s actually getting worse.

When you consider the disgraceful Malthouse incident which took it to a new level.

And when you consider how abhorrent the abuse is, especially in a sport promoting itself to families.

When you consider all that I am absolutely stunned that the AFL has not stepped in.

And it is my view that if Milne was an indigenous player then they would have indeed stepped in a fair while ago.

I’m not knocking what the AFL does for the indigenous players, far from it.

However I think Milne is being left to his own devices on this because he is a little pasty white bloke from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. And that’s simply not good enough, especially when you consider the effects on his family and on parents attending games with their kids.

I may well be wrong. However I can’t imagine an indigenous player and his family having to put up with 8 years of this rubbish without the AFL displaying its paternal side.

It’s about time they stood up and did something for Stephen.

EXACTLY;

But to do so would mean that the AFL would need to have the courage to stand up to Eddie Maguire, News Ltd, Ch9, MMM and all the other bully boys around our competition. IT SIMPLY WON'T HAPEN !!

[Life Long Saint]

I’ve thought long and hard about posting the following as it may lead to people misconstruing my words and forming incorrect opinions about me. It may even lead to people uttering the other despised “R” word.

However it’s something I’ve believed for a long time.

When you consider Milne has been putting up with this stuff since 2004 and it’s actually getting worse.

When you consider the disgraceful Malthouse incident which took it to a new level.

And when you consider how abhorrent the abuse is, especially in a sport promoting itself to families.

When you consider all that I am absolutely stunned that the AFL has not stepped in.

And it is my view that if Milne was an indigenous player then they would have indeed stepped in a fair while ago.

I’m not knocking what the AFL does for the indigenous players, far from it.

However I think Milne is being left to his own devices on this because he is a little pasty white bloke from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. And that’s simply not good enough, especially when you consider the effects on his family and on parents attending games with their kids.

I may well be wrong. However I can’t imagine an indigenous player and his family having to put up with 8 years of this rubbish without the AFL displaying its paternal side.

It’s about time they stood up and did something for Stephen.

This is dead right...

Imagine if Lovett had been picked up by an AFL club and was subjected to this abuse...

I mean Andrew Krakouer made headlines last season when someone abused him about the incident that sent him to prison. Yet Milne has been subjected to these taunts since 2004 with no negative press from anyone.

Maybe we need our high profile president to have a go at someone in the crowd over some comments. That'll happen...Right?

[Eastern]

Maybe this isn't the right place for us to vent our collective spleen. We need to find a way to put pressure on the AFL to act. We can contact the club and ask that they try to get the AFL to act or we can hit the airwaves. Ring, text or e-mail all the talkback outlets in Melbourne. If enough people bring it up something might, just might be done about it !!

[Mrs_Seaford_Saint]

All due respect about the letter I highly doubt any club (even ours) would take the time to bother resolving the problems you outlined as honestly it's a footy match and it's all part of the game .. Yes it's annoying to be taunted especially over the Milne stuff but I can't see those taunts ending anytime soon especially because everyone knows it gets up our noses like nothing else ... My suggestion is to ignore it and concentrate on the game fighting back or pulling them up will only add fuel to their fire ... Take the higher moral ground the fact they get a reaction out of you justifys their taunts in their eyes ...

Do you understand how hard it is as a victim of rape to listen - it's been long enough - Milney was found not guilty I hold nothing against him ( in fact I love him) the people who chant or yell obscene things about rape and laugh - normally I take the higher ground but this is too close to home for me to sit around and do nothing.

I don't know what to do but something must be done as I guarantee I am not the only person female or male who listens to this week in and week out at the football who has been the victim of abuse.

[st_Trav_ofWA]

I think you got the wrong I'm pression of me I agree it is Definatly Wrong and Milne unfairly cops it the point I'm making is the people doing it know it irks the saints supporters to no end and in turn do it more for that kind of reaction ... The reason the clubs won't look into it is because atwhat point do they deem what is acceptable ? I've seen our supporter give it to WCE players about drugs , I've seen supporters give it to Crawford for being gay ( even though he isn't ) taunting players and inturn supporters is as old as the hills it's a sad fact that til Milne retires we will cop it

[SaintPav]

I think you got the wrong I'm pression of me I agree it is Definatly Wrong and Milne unfairly cops it the point I'm making is the people doing it know it irks the saints supporters to no end and in turn do it more for that kind of reaction ... The reason the clubs won't look into it is because atwhat point do they deem what is acceptable ? I've seen our supporter give it to WCE players about drugs , I've seen supporters give it to Crawford for being gay ( even though he isn't ) taunting players and inturn supporters is as old as the hills it's a sad fact that til Milne retires we will cop it

true to a point, but there is a line.

BTW, but with due respect I think your response to that wonderful letter by ozrulestrace and your attitude is an absolute cop out. Imagine if Nicky Winmar had your attitude...the world will only change when good people stand up and do the right thing

[SaintPav]

I’ve thought long and hard about posting the following as it may lead to people misconstruing my words and forming incorrect opinions about me. It may even lead to people uttering the other despised “R” word.

However it’s something I’ve believed for a long time.

When you consider Milne has been putting up with this stuff since 2004 and it’s actually getting worse.

When you consider the disgraceful Malthouse incident which took it to a new level.

And when you consider how abhorrent the abuse is, especially in a sport promoting itself to families.

When you consider all that I am absolutely stunned that the AFL has not stepped in.

And it is my view that if Milne was an indigenous player then they would have indeed stepped in a fair while ago.

I’m not knocking what the AFL does for the indigenous players, far from it.

However I think Milne is being left to his own devices on this because he is a little pasty white bloke from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. And that’s simply not good enough, especially when you consider the effects on his family and on parents attending games with their kids.

I may well be wrong. However I can’t imagine an indigenous player and his family having to put up with 8 years of this rubbish without the AFL displaying its paternal side.

It’s about time they stood up and did something for Stephen.

Great post.

You should write more often instead of just posting silly photos.

[The Redeemer]

I’ve thought long and hard about posting the following as it may lead to people misconstruing my words and forming incorrect opinions about me. It may even lead to people uttering the other despised “R” word.

However it’s something I’ve believed for a long time.

When you consider Milne has been putting up with this stuff since 2004 and it’s actually getting worse.

When you consider the disgraceful Malthouse incident which took it to a new level.

And when you consider how abhorrent the abuse is, especially in a sport promoting itself to families.

When you consider all that I am absolutely stunned that the AFL has not stepped in.

And it is my view that if Milne was an indigenous player then they would have indeed stepped in a fair while ago.

I’m not knocking what the AFL does for the indigenous players, far from it.

However I think Milne is being left to his own devices on this because he is a little pasty white bloke from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. And that’s simply not good enough, especially when you consider the effects on his family and on parents attending games with their kids.

I may well be wrong. However I can’t imagine an indigenous player and his family having to put up with 8 years of this rubbish without the AFL displaying its paternal side.

It’s about time they stood up and did something for Stephen.

This is dead right...

Imagine if Lovett had been picked up by an AFL club and was subjected to this abuse...

I mean Andrew Krakouer made headlines last season when someone abused him about the incident that sent him to prison. Yet Milne has been subjected to these taunts since 2004 with no negative press from anyone.

Maybe we need our high profile president to have a go at someone in the crowd over some comments. That'll happen...Right?

Krakouer is indigenous so anti-racism occurs. He is now a sexy story whereby we have to seemingly give him a second chance despite being a piece of s***. Also he probably is deemed a good role model despite nearly killing someone.

If he was white he would have been chastised and it would have continued. Compared to being indigenous and now he is almost off-limits (See Eddie going nuts last year).

If indigenous boys look at him as a role model well an entire group of people are stuffed. A bloke that did what he did deserves no credit for apparently turning his life around blah blah blah. He has been to jail for a prolonged period of time and if that counts as a role model well I am from Mars.

[Eastern]

All due respect about the letter I highly doubt any club (even ours) would take the time to bother resolving the problems you outlined as honestly it's a footy match and it's all part of the game .. Yes it's annoying to be taunted especially over the Milne stuff but I can't see those taunts ending anytime soon especially because everyone knows it gets up our noses like nothing else ... My suggestion is to ignore it and concentrate on the game fighting back or pulling them up will only add fuel to their fire ... Take the higher moral ground the fact they get a reaction out of you justifys their taunts in their eyes ...

Do you understand how hard it is as a victim of rape to listen - it's been long enough - Milney was found not guilty I hold nothing against him ( in fact I love him) the people who chant or yell obscene things about rape and laugh - normally I take the higher ground but this is too close to home for me to sit around and do nothing.

I don't know what to do but something must be done as I guarantee I am not the only person female or male who listens to this week in and week out at the football who has been the victim of abuse.

Mrs Seaford; Your story is so sad and is a prime reason why something needs to be done. I admire your bravery and would understand if you took no notice of this suggestion;

Your story, and the repeated torment you receive when you go to the footy needs to be heard by ALL footy fans. Have you considered telling your story to the AFL, The Club and/or any of the so called footy media outlets? I believe that stories like yours could help but it would take an enormous ammount of courage to tell it publicly.

Anyway, GOOD LUCK to you & yours. You are a very brave lady whom I admire even though I have never met you !!

[SainterK]

There is media outlets like theroar where people can publish their own stories

http://www.theroar.com.au/

Under AFL stories.

Would be a good start?

Agree with everything Eastern said.

[ozrulestrace]

M10 and behind the goals at the Punt Rd end have been issues for ages...last yar the M10 hawks fans were deplorable..they congregate there cos its close to the bar..nuff said

Good on you for your steadfastness...keep us posted if you hear anything back. I know if the MW behaved like that the Club would rightfully jump on us quick smart

Well here's Hawthorn's resposne which has just come through-

Says it all really

Your message

To: Hawthorn
Subject: Hawthorn supporters Saturday May 5
Sent: Sunday, 6 May 2012 3:40:47 PM (UTC+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

was deleted without being read on Monday, 7 May 2012 5:37:53 PM (UTC+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney.

If I did that in my jog, my employer would be less than happy.

[ozrulestrace]

By the way Mrs Seaford Saint, I agree with Eastern's thoughts about your bravery in confronting these gutless wonders.
"I dips my lid" to you and your good husband Seaford Saint.

I know I walked out of the game physically distressed about the whole encounter, but for you, it must have been ten times worse.

Makes you wonder, just how serious Hawthorn as "The Family Club" are serious about addressing these issues because their response seems to be "Not our family, not our problem"

[supersaints]

I remember when collingwood supporters urinated and spat On their OWN players running up the race when they lost to the saints back in the seventies. Pissing and spitting on the opposition was par for the course every home game by the filth in those dark days. Things used to be a lot worse though I agree they need to try to eliminate the sort of behavior you witnessed . It is 2012 After all

[Mrs_Seaford_Saint]

I would just like to thank every one for the support shown to myself and my husband - it was a very difficult thing for both of us to make this a "public" thing as it's not something that many people know about me and we are both private people.

I think we both just hope that the said male in question thinks before he speaks next time.

[andrewg]

we dont go to collingwood games AT ALL after a terrible experience a few years ago. Its just not worth it.

[I Love Peter Kiel]

I’ve thought long and hard about posting the following as it may lead to people misconstruing my words and forming incorrect opinions about me. It may even lead to people uttering the other despised “R” word.

However it’s something I’ve believed for a long time.

When you consider Milne has been putting up with this stuff since 2004 and it’s actually getting worse.

When you consider the disgraceful Malthouse incident which took it to a new level.

And when you consider how abhorrent the abuse is, especially in a sport promoting itself to families.

When you consider all that I am absolutely stunned that the AFL has not stepped in.

And it is my view that if Milne was an indigenous player then they would have indeed stepped in a fair while ago.

I’m not knocking what the AFL does for the indigenous players, far from it.

However I think Milne is being left to his own devices on this because he is a little pasty white bloke from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. And that’s simply not good enough, especially when you consider the effects on his family and on parents attending games with their kids.

I may well be wrong. However I can’t imagine an indigenous player and his family having to put up with 8 years of this rubbish without the AFL displaying its paternal side.

It’s about time they stood up and did something for Stephen.

Too true!

[stkildajason3votes]

No way, some hawk's fans are bad but Pies the worst by far, no ethics or morals whatsoever.

you forgot or front teeth.

[jonesy]

It won't stop until Milney retires unfortunatly. However our next 44 will probably cop it also to a degree for a year or two

Things aren't great for our supporter base,the opposition have copius ammunition to use,Grand Final losses,Rewoildt crying-Rewildt in general,school girl,nude photo's,Milne/Lovett,etc etc.

A clean slate will be refreshing in a few years time..

[stkildajason3votes]

Those opposition supporters should be given a pass with a date and tme so they can enter a UFC quad and fight an equally weighted supporter that reports offenders. Once the s*** is kicked out of the week pricks things will be kosa. Only problem if their Dorks or Cold Pies with the s*** kicked out of them they would become invisable. GO TIPRAT. You have the 500 goals doublt the loud mouths have ever kicked a goal in any division.

[paulski]

I think the way something will be done, is if some one records the putrid chants and comments directed at Milney on their iphones, and posts them on youtube or sends them to the press. A little risky, but could be done discretely. Blues next week, it'll happen again!