DO BETTER
Winmar condemns ‘systemic racism’ at Pies
INDIGENOUS footy great Nicky Winmar has slammed Collingwood’s response to a damning report into its culture as another example of “systemic racism” at the club.
President Eddie McGuire yesterday claimed the emergence of the report’s detail was “a day of pride” for the Magpies, proving their commitment to tackling the issue.
A defiant McGuire declared “we’re not a racist club” and disputed many of the review’s findings.
Winmar last night said of his response: “That is an exact definition of systemic racism.”
The St Kilda great’s famous case, when he lifted his jumper to the crowd to show the colour of his skin after being racially abused by Collingwood fans at Victoria Park in 1993, was among a series of examples listed in the report.
“I made my comment that day in 1993. My response to racism was to stand tall and say that ‘I’m black and I’m proud’. I still stand by it,” Winmar said.
McGuire stared down calls for his resignation immediately after the leaking of the secret “Do Better” review, which found “systemic racism within the Collingwood Football Club”.
Lawyers for Heritier Lumumba, whose claims of racial vilification at the club sparked the probe, said the premiership Magpie had been “vindicated”.
“Now with it all out in the open, suffice to say it entirely vindicates our client’s claims. He has been saying these things for the past seven years,” special counsel Rhea Dhillon said.
The report, commissioned by the club, was written by professors Larissa Behrendt and Lindon Coombes and submitted to the board in December, but kept under wraps until News Corp revealed its findings on Monday.
It found there was “systemic racism” that must be addressed, the club’s record on the issue was “egregious”, its responses to incidents often “exacerbated” their impact and those who spoke out paid a “high cost”.
Monash University sports sociologist Richard Pringle called for the AFL to make an example of Collingwood, saying if the league was serious about stamping out racism it would penalise clubs that failed to act on it.
“Banning Collingwood for a season, for example, would make a huge difference,” he said. “It would spark outrage but it would force clubs to make a genuine attempt to stamp out racism.”
Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe said McGuire had “ruined” people’s lives and careers, adding “he’s not even sorry” and “he needs to leave now before he does any more harm, his time is up”.
Former Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse said he had never encountered racism at the club during his stint between 2000 and 2011.
“My playing group and the people around me in the football department – and anyone I dealt with at the club – would be horrified to be swept into that category,” Malthouse said.
“But unless you have walked in someone else’s shoes, you do not know. So if there had been references that were hurtful, then I think we have got to listen to what people are saying and take action.”
Asked if McGuire’s position had become untenable, Malthouse said: “I’m not going there.”
Pressed whether a reference in the report to “a culture of individuals, if not quite being bigger than the club, then at least having an unhealthy degree of influence over club culture” was aimed at him, McGuire said he did not know.
“What’s happened on my watch is we’ve built a fantastic club, we’ve commissioned this report, we’ve built all sorts of mechanisms for getting involved in the community … we look back and say, in 2021, what is it we need to do?” McGuire said.
“It was not systemic racism, as such, we just didn’t have the processes to deal with it that we do now.
“This (report) isn’t criticism. This is a review. It’s very strong because we asked them to go as hard as they could.”