Speaker 1: Already and this is this is the Daily This is
Speaker 1: the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
Speaker 2: the twenty first of August. I'm Zam Kazlowski.
Speaker 1: I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 2: Adelaide Crow's star Isaac Rankin is set to miss a
Speaker 2: number of matches that could rule him out of the
Speaker 2: AFL finals. This comes after he used a homophobic slur
Speaker 2: against a Collingwood player during their match last weekend, and
Speaker 2: it's the sixth homophobic slur incident in the AFL since
Speaker 2: April of twenty twenty four. On today's podcast, we're going
Speaker 2: to dive into the incident itself, the widest sporting and
Speaker 2: social context dominating conversations in the sport, only two weeks
Speaker 2: out from the season's final series, and what happens next.
Speaker 3: We will get into all of that and more after
Speaker 3: a quick message from today's sponsor.
Speaker 2: Sam.
Speaker 3: We're talking today about this homophobic slur incident in the AFL,
Speaker 3: But before we get to what happened, let's talk about
Speaker 3: the player at the center of this controversy. Now, for
Speaker 3: myself and novices alike, I had not heard about Isaac
Speaker 3: Rankin until this incident. I am not really an AFL girly,
Speaker 3: but it's certainly a story that's been dominating headlines, so
Speaker 3: I really want to understand more.
Speaker 1: But tell me about Isaac Rankin, the player.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's fair to say that if you
Speaker 2: are an AFL fan, but also if you're from Adelaide,
Speaker 2: you would know the name Isaac Rankin. Ok He's a
Speaker 2: twenty five year old forward and midfielder for the Adelaide Crows.
Speaker 2: He's considered one of their best players. He spent four
Speaker 2: seasons his first four seasons at the Gold Coast Suns
Speaker 2: before he made the move to Adelaide in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: He's one of their highest paid and most marketable players,
Speaker 2: so the type of player you would see on the
Speaker 2: poster as you drive through Adelaide or fly into Adelaide Airport. Now,
Speaker 2: many AFL observers say that this year has been his
Speaker 2: best season in the league, and if we look at
Speaker 2: the team in general, it's fair to say Adelaide is
Speaker 2: the best team in the competition right now. Okay, they
Speaker 2: are top of the ladder and they're set to play
Speaker 2: in their first final series since twenty seventeen. They haven't
Speaker 2: won a premiership since nineteen ninety eight. So for a
Speaker 2: football mad town like Adelaide, this is a really big
Speaker 2: deal and a very big time of year.
Speaker 3: Okay, So we're talking about a really high performing player
Speaker 3: on the most dominant team on the ladder this season.
Speaker 3: He's having a great season, the club's having a great season.
Speaker 3: But this isn't really a story about football. It's not
Speaker 3: a story about how high performing a player he is.
Speaker 1: It's about something much more sinister, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So during Adelaide's match against Collingwood on Saturday nights
Speaker 2: last weekend, it's alleged that Ranken directed a homophobic slur
Speaker 2: at an opposition player. The AFL's Integrity Unit launched an investigation,
Speaker 2: and on Tuesday night, Channel nine's Eddie McGuire reported that
Speaker 2: Rankins season is over. His theory there is that the
Speaker 2: AFL sets a hand down a five match suspension.
Speaker 3: Okay, So why would a five match ban be so
Speaker 3: significant for Adelaide at this time?
Speaker 2: Well, Adelaide, as I said, is sitting on top of
Speaker 2: the ladder. They're heading into finals. There's one match left
Speaker 2: in the regular season. Then they have a maximum of
Speaker 2: four games in the final series, the qualifying final, semifinal,
Speaker 2: preliminary final, and then the Grand Final, obviously assuming they
Speaker 2: make it there. So what that means is that a
Speaker 2: five match suspension would rule Rankin' out for the entire
Speaker 2: finals campaign, and for a team with their best show
Speaker 2: at the Trophies since the late nineties, that is a
Speaker 2: big blow to the club.
Speaker 3: Okay, Now, of course this is all context for the
Speaker 3: media storm that has ensued around this incident. It's not
Speaker 3: necessarily excusing any of the alleged behavior, but I think
Speaker 3: it's helpful to understand this side For me, kind of
Speaker 3: being an outsider, understanding all of the controversy in hype
Speaker 3: around this decision. That finals context is certainly critical.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you and I had a chat about that
Speaker 2: before we came in to record this. It felt funny
Speaker 2: to start this podcast with an explanation of the football
Speaker 2: side of things. But as you say, I do think
Speaker 2: it's important in placing this story in the context of
Speaker 2: the discussions that we're about to have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pausing there though, specifically about the Isaac Cranken decision,
Speaker 3: This isn't the first incident of its kind.
Speaker 1: When we're talking about the AFL is it.
Speaker 2: No, And that's also important context. So this is the
Speaker 2: sixth recent homophobic slur incident in the competition, and the
Speaker 2: pattern shows that escalating penalties, So a five match ban
Speaker 2: six match ban isn't actually working. So the latest string
Speaker 2: of incidents began with Port Adelaide player Jeremy Finlayson in
Speaker 2: April of last year. He received a three match ban.
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks after that, Gold Coasts will Be
Speaker 2: Howe got five matches when the AFL explicitly warned at
Speaker 2: that stage of further consequences for other players who would
Speaker 2: be found guilty of something like this.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Then this year we had Saints player Lance Collard, he
Speaker 2: got a six match ban. West Coast Eagle player Jack
Speaker 2: Graham got four matches in July. His ban was lower
Speaker 2: because he self reported the incident to the AFLA and
Speaker 2: that was taken into account by the body as a
Speaker 2: bit of a mitigating factor there. Sure most recently, Sydney's
Speaker 2: Reac Andrew received five matches and that was just weeks
Speaker 2: before his club's pride game.
Speaker 3: Okay, so a very concerning pattern of behavior across the league.
Speaker 3: We're not talking about an isolated culture problem within one club.
Speaker 3: You could argue that there is a culture problem right
Speaker 3: across the league. So we have a precedent of this behavior,
Speaker 3: We have a precedent in terms of penalties for that behavior.
Speaker 3: What has the Adelaide Football Club said about the incident
Speaker 3: regarding its player.
Speaker 2: Well, in the statements released by the Adelaide Football Club
Speaker 2: since the incident, they have come out and said that
Speaker 2: they don't condone any sort of homophobia in sport, and
Speaker 2: they've given kind of the cavets we expect now from
Speaker 2: clubs responding to this kind of incident. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, they've launched a major defense to the AFL,
Speaker 2: hoping to get the length of the ban reduced. At
Speaker 2: the moment, it sounds like what they're hoping for is
Speaker 2: a four match ban instead of five, to make Rankin
Speaker 2: potentially eligible for the Grand Final should they be there.
Speaker 2: And one of the primary arguments is that Rankin faced
Speaker 2: aggressive verbal attacks from Collingwood players before the incident, including
Speaker 2: comments allegedly made regarding Rankin being knocked out by competing
Speaker 2: player Dan Houston last year when he was playing at
Speaker 2: the time for crosstown rival club Port Adelaide. He signed
Speaker 2: with Collingwood this season.
Speaker 3: Okay, So hang on, just take me back for a second. There,
Speaker 3: we're saying that Adelaide Football Club are kind of trying
Speaker 3: to defend the slur or defend the place that Ranken
Speaker 3: was in when he made the comment by suggesting that
Speaker 3: he was agitated, That he was agitated because he himself
Speaker 3: had suffered a really horrific head knock last year by
Speaker 3: a Collingwood player. He wasn't a Collingwood player at the
Speaker 3: time exactly, but that he was face to face with
Speaker 3: that player and that that may have stirred up certain
Speaker 3: feelings in him.
Speaker 2: Well that more than that, that the player and other
Speaker 2: players were taunting him about that injury, okay, and basically
Speaker 2: kind of riling them up. To put that in context though,
Speaker 2: of professional sport, I think that players do this all
Speaker 2: the time to each other without crossing lines that lead to,
Speaker 2: you know, being the feature of a podcast like this
Speaker 2: is today. So that's not particularly unusual behavior.
Speaker 3: So not to take away from you know, the seriousness
Speaker 3: of these comments, but there was a serious head knock
Speaker 3: last year for him. But what you're saying there is,
Speaker 3: you know, that doesn't excuse responding with homophobia.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's up to the IFL to decide whether
Speaker 2: it does or it doesn't. What I would say though,
Speaker 2: is that I think if you asked any sample of
Speaker 2: AFL players or players across any sport, there would be
Speaker 2: a fair bit of verbal combat on the sporting field,
Speaker 2: in the sporting arena. I think that's probably the same
Speaker 2: case for the AFLW as well, and so they're mounting
Speaker 2: that as their primary argument. Their secondary argument is, hang on,
Speaker 2: it's not the same to ban a player for five games,
Speaker 2: including four finals, as it is to ban a player
Speaker 2: for five games which are just as part of the
Speaker 2: regular season. And that case has never been really put
Speaker 2: to the AFL before in this context. It's the first
Speaker 2: time in the context of a homophobic slur, and they're
Speaker 2: basically arguing that the nature of the games should be considered.
Speaker 3: Okay, puts the AFL in, I'm sure an incredibly difficult position.
Speaker 3: But what about the reaction from players. Have we heard
Speaker 3: from all those involved?
Speaker 2: Well, the captain of the Adelaid Football Club, his name
Speaker 2: is Jordan Dawson, and he said that there wasn't a
Speaker 2: cultural issue in the AFL. He said the situation was
Speaker 2: not ideal. Those were his words. Then a teammate, a
Speaker 2: senior teammate, Taylor Walker. He was on Triple M in Adelaide,
Speaker 2: and he said that Rankin is quote very remorseful and
Speaker 2: understands he's made a mistake and has isolated himself at
Speaker 2: home during this investigation.
Speaker 3: Okay, So a couple of maybe contrasting reactions from within
Speaker 3: the same club, you know, one kind of dismissing that
Speaker 3: there is a cultural issue across the league, another more
Speaker 3: directly confronting the issue and reflecting remorse. But what about
Speaker 3: Isaac Rankin himself? Has he responded directly?
Speaker 2: We haven't heard from Rankin himself. We understand that he
Speaker 2: called and apologized to the player at the receiving end
Speaker 2: of his homophobic comments. We don't know who that player is, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: but we do know there has been contact between Rancan
Speaker 2: and this player. Rankin hasn't released any statement publicly though,
Speaker 2: at the time of recording to do with this incident.
Speaker 3: All right, So, Sam, you've given us a really good
Speaker 3: insight into what happened last weekend what's followed in terms
Speaker 3: of the fallout and the reaction. But I can't help
Speaker 3: but think about those string of homophobic slurs that you
Speaker 3: explained dating back to kind of April twenty twenty four,
Speaker 3: several similar incidents in the year and a half.
Speaker 1: Or so that has followed.
Speaker 3: I guess to put it in simplest terms, does the
Speaker 3: AFL have a homophobia problem?
Speaker 2: Well, in April they released their first LGBTQI plus Inclusion
Speaker 2: Action Plan, and in the front statement from the CEO,
Speaker 2: Andrew Dillon, he writes, we know that historically the game
Speaker 2: of AFL has not always been a safe space for
Speaker 2: LGBTQI plus people, and if you look at the report overall,
Speaker 2: it clearly acknowledges that not enough has been done in
Speaker 2: the sport to make it a safe place not only
Speaker 2: for players on the field, but coaches, staff and fans,
Speaker 2: and it outlines the step that it wants to take
Speaker 2: to improve that. Now, the really important piece of context
Speaker 2: here is that the AFL remains the only major professional
Speaker 2: male sporting code in the world to have never had
Speaker 2: an openly gay or bisexual player past or present. Wow,
Speaker 2: it's a remarkable statistic, especially when you consider that tens
Speaker 2: of thousands of players have come through the game since
Speaker 2: it started in eighteen ninety seven, and in April of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, then CEO Gillan McLaughlin said there were
Speaker 2: gay players in the sport, but and this is his words,
Speaker 2: the pressure and the weight of being that person, of
Speaker 2: being the first afl player who comes out and plays
Speaker 2: as an out gay man was too much. It is
Speaker 2: also worth mentioning that several members of the AFLW, the
Speaker 2: women's competition, which only started last weekend, are openly part
Speaker 2: of the LGBTQIA plus community.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I wanted to draw that comparison because I think it
Speaker 3: says a lot. We've got the afl W and all
Speaker 3: of the kind of inclusive messaging around that league, that competition.
Speaker 3: You know, it's all about visibility and empowering young girls
Speaker 3: and including as many people as possible. And then this
Speaker 3: really stark contrast of a league that is over one
Speaker 3: hundred years old but hasn't yet had a player comfortable
Speaker 3: or confident enough to openly come out.
Speaker 2: Well. Advocacy organizations point to the use of pride rounds
Speaker 2: as an example here. So the AFLW has a pride round.
Speaker 2: It's in its fifth year now, and you know, this
Speaker 2: provides a conversation point in the season, both visibly and
Speaker 2: in the conversations happening in media and within clubs. But
Speaker 2: this contrasts to the men's game where currently there's only
Speaker 2: a single pride game, so one game within one round
Speaker 2: that's played each year that's hosted by the Sydney Swans,
Speaker 2: and that's in its ninth year, so we haven't seen
Speaker 2: the expansion of that pride game format across the men's COMPETI.
Speaker 3: It's interesting, and you know, I'm sure a lot of experts,
Speaker 3: a lot of people more qualified than me, will have
Speaker 3: fascinating takes on you know, why the game is this way,
Speaker 3: But any elite sport I think to understand its culture,
Speaker 3: it is helpful to go back to the more grassroots
Speaker 3: community club level to understand the future of that game.
Speaker 3: And there is some concerning data in that respect. When
Speaker 3: we're thinking about Ozzie Rules. There was this Australian first
Speaker 3: study I just quickly want to tell you about into
Speaker 3: the participation of LGBTQ plus youth in sport, and what
Speaker 3: we learned from that is it over half of LGBTQ
Speaker 3: plus young people have witnessed discrimination in sport, forty percent
Speaker 3: have experienced it personally, and a twenty nineteen report found
Speaker 3: seventy three percent of male amateur AFL players aged between
Speaker 3: sixteen and twenty had heard their teammates using homophobic slurs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, this is kind of the bigger conversation
Speaker 2: to have and possibly its own episode of the podcast.
Speaker 2: Is that we're talking about the elite level of sport,
Speaker 2: but these are the role models of the game, and
Speaker 2: we know that behavior is mirrored through all levels of sport,
Speaker 2: way down to junior sport for kids in primary and high.
Speaker 3: School, and all the way up to things like halftime entertainment.
Speaker 3: There is a bit of a conversation going on right
Speaker 3: now about Snoop Dogg. He's been named as this year's
Speaker 3: Grand Final entertainment. That decision has proved to be relevant
Speaker 3: to this story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how so. Well, Snoop Dogg has a documented history
Speaker 2: of homophobic statements, and I wanted to kind of encapsulate
Speaker 2: this with a line from an editorial published by the
Speaker 2: Age newspaper in Melbourne yesterday. It says Snoop Dogg came
Speaker 2: up through the ranks of rapidom on a platform of sexist,
Speaker 2: misogynistic views. That may well have been the audience to
Speaker 2: which he was performing, but context comes into play here.
Speaker 2: Many are questioning the choice on a day of family
Speaker 2: entertainment interesting and basically it makes this case that on
Speaker 2: one hand, the AFL is suspending players for homophobic slurs
Speaker 2: while simultaneously paying a large sum of money to an
Speaker 2: artist who has used similar language. Now the AFL has
Speaker 2: come out the CEO and said that Snoop would perform
Speaker 2: quote family friendly songs and suggested that some critics might
Speaker 2: actually be converted after the performance. It's not just LGBTQI
Speaker 2: plus organizations raising concerns about Snoop Dogg performing. We've also
Speaker 2: heard from violence prevention organizations with some of that misogynistic
Speaker 2: context in Snoop Dogg's lyrics too.
Speaker 1: Okay, not that it's funny.
Speaker 3: I was just trying to imagine Snoop Dogg performing a
Speaker 3: family friendly version of drop It like a toot or
Speaker 3: Gin and Juice. I look forward to seeing what they
Speaker 3: come up with, Sam. This is a very serious case though,
Speaker 3: So where does this leave us?
Speaker 1: What happens next?
Speaker 2: So the AFL is expected to announce the penalty today.
Speaker 2: These backroom conversations have been happening between the club and
Speaker 2: the Code. Adelaide is expected to be given a bit
Speaker 2: of time to respond and potentially appeal the verdict. It's
Speaker 2: a bit of an unorthodox negotiation process happening regardless of
Speaker 2: the band, though we are now having this broader conversation. Clearly,
Speaker 2: you know this is eleven years after the AFL made
Speaker 2: a public commitment to eradicate homophobia. We're seeing a trend
Speaker 2: at least in the last two years that is going
Speaker 2: the wrong way. So I guess what happens with Rankin's
Speaker 2: penalty today is of course going to be significant for
Speaker 2: Adelaide's premiership hopes, but the broader cultural issues here clearly
Speaker 2: are going to require more than individual punishments to resolve.
Speaker 3: A fascinating story, and we'll keep an eye on it
Speaker 3: and you can find all the updates in our sport
Speaker 3: newsletter every single day that drops in your inbox. There'll
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Speaker 3: you want to get around that.
Speaker 1: That's all for today's deep dive.
Speaker 3: We will be back later on with your evening news headlines,
Speaker 3: but until then, have a great day.
Speaker 2: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 2: Bunjelung Calkatin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily Oz acknowledges
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