AFL urged to hand Clarko heavy sanction for ‘grubby’ slur as vision emerges of ugly bump scenes

Chief Herald Sun reporter Mark Robinson has called for the AFL to come down on North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson with a “sizeable fine” for an “unacceptable” slur to Jimmy Webster.

Clarkson apologised to Webster and St Kilda for reportedly calling Webster a c***sucker in a heated moment that included other Saints players at the quarter-time break of the weekend’s practice match – an exchange Fox Footy caught vision of – after Webster’s massive hit on Jy Simpkin.

In a column in the Herald Sun, Robinson declared that if Clarkson isn’t punished with a “sizeable fine,” then “the AFL is telling all footballers that it’s OK to use homophobic language – as long as you apologise,” imploring AFL footy boss Laura Kane to “enforce a code of conduct”.

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“And just as community expectations demand a long suspension for Webster, amid the concussion debate, the community expectation is that you can’t call a person a c***sucker and not be sanctioned,” Robinson wrote.

“What a grubby line from an AFL coach. What if Webster is gay and Clarkson just outed him? And if he’s not gay, the inference is shocking.

“As a leader of our sport, it’s imperative that the AFL represents the community expectations.”

Robinson on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 expanded on his story, saying there “has to be” a bigger penalty for Clarkson’s actions – not just being OK with the four-time premiership coach’s apology.

“Think of any other major sport around the world where one of the most senior and respected figures uses – we’re not even going to say it, but you should know it by know – that language, and the league says ‘That’s OK, you can be homophobic’,” Robinson told AFL 360.

“Clarkson might say it wasn’t homophobic, but it’s a homophobic word. If he made a racist comment, would the AFL come down heavy on him? Of course they would.

“What’s the difference on racist and homophobic language? The AFL cant preach inclusion and diversity and have one of its senior figures in the game slap that word onto a plater int he heat of the moment.

“It’s not an excuse in the heat of the moment, because if we start giving heat of the moment excuses to everyone, we’ll be forgiving everyone.

“I think he should be fined, others have told me today he should be suspended.”

Fellow AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley said the matter is two-fold given, in addition to the alleged inappropriate language used, an interaction between a coach and player “has always been frowned upon,” adding “you roll that together and demand action”.

“I think a fine would be appropriate in this instance. I’m not always big on handing out fines, but I think for what this is, that does feel right,” Whateley said.

Probed on the matter later on the program, AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said the league was still investigating what transpired between Clarkson and the St Kilda players.

Dillon said until the league had conducted its own investigation, he couldn’t speculate on potential penalties.

“First of all, I think senior coaches or officials approaching players at breaks of play isn’t something we want to see anyway,” Dillon began on AFL 360.

“When you overlay what’s been reported, it’s language Alastair has already come out and said it’s inappropriate. It’s something I don’t like and we don’t need it in our game.

“We don’t want to get ahead of the process, so what we do is provide a please explain and give Alastair the opportunity to come back to us. We’ll talk to St Kilda and once we’ve got all that information, we’ll look at that and weigh it against what our rules are and then deal with it that way.”

Dillon added that if it’s found that there’s been a breach of the AFL code, coaches would be reprimanded like any other person in the game.

“Ultimatley, you’ve got to look at every incident and action on its facts,” the AFL boss said.

What we’ll do now is go through a process to find out those facts before we make any final determination.”