Kevin Sheedy, the AFL old VS Craig Foster &immigrants

[shinAUFC]

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/craig-fo ... a-disgrace

Absolute must read!!

What pains me the most is Sheedys thoughts are actually the majority in this country

[sevengoals]

I just saw this.
And I was going to add it to the SMH thread.
It still is the wog game down there.

Nothing seems to have changed.

Here is the Advertiser's report.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl ... 6640968472

[ZANZIBAR]

this man is a has been...he doesn't do it for shock factor because he genuinely thinks like this. WSW rule west Sydney and it makes him lose sleep so im happy.

[sevengoals]

But this is the very point, Kev. The game of football represents the real Australia, where everyone is welcome, where everyone has a contribution to make, because in football we understand fundamentally that we’re all wogs, every single one of us.

I’m an ‘immigrant’, Kev, and bloody proud of it.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/craig-fo ... a-disgrace

Damn right,
I am the son of immigrants and I'm also bloody proud of it.

Wog ball for the wogs!

[shinAUFC]

Fozzie may babble on at times but his ethics and and sense of responsibility to fans of the game is epic!

Sheedy has come out and basically excluded his whole fan base. He needs to realise he is no longer in Melbourne.

As a whole we ( Australians ) can be so bloody ignorant and closed minded to anything or anyone who is different. Yet the majority of us are only 1 or 2 generations from being a foreigner.... how quickly some forget!

Football has enough traction in the media now to cause waves from comments like this. It was not so long ago this was the norm and acceptable.

[sevengoals]

Old football - New Australians - no problems!

But despite the anxious build-up to the match, the atmosphere was peaceful, the attention firmly focused on the football. Perhaps if there was violence, this match might’ve made it onto the sports pages or the evening news.

But there wasn’t, and so the mainstream media couldn’t care less. It’s indicative of the way our media treats minority groups in this country, only paying attention when something goes wrong.

http://www.theroar.com.au/2013/05/13/th ... ney-derby/

[Interloper]

Kevin Sheedy, "The AFL is shit!" Media, "KEVIN SHEEDY - AFL PROPAGANDIST"

He'd just spent a large part of the press conference complaining about the terrible scheduling and lack of support or organisation by the AFL in engaging the community in West Sydney and people expect him to have suddenly taken the exact opposite attitude for this one sentence.

The only thing Sheedy has done wrong is be a shit coach. I was looking forward to his demise, but hope he sticks around now to irritate people.

[Agostinho]

Am I missing something here?

I thought Sheedy was just illustrating the point that given football is the world game, chances are any new Australians are most likely to be football fans before they get here. And given the demographics of Western Sydney that's given the Wanderers a terrific base to work with.

What he said may not have been elequently delivered, but I don't think there was anything untoward in its meaning. I thought he was just illustrating that its going to take time to build aussie rules fans in the region.

[EdDog]

Maybe the video had been edited but I would have to disagree with the above post.

The video I saw, he made a point of mentioning that the immigration dept is helping WSW get fans - completely unnecessary and prejudice. Why bother make such a backward comment in a question about crowd sizes??? If it really is because AFL is having trouble breaking into the Western Sydney market, then just say that - why make a slur about immigrants at all???

Now going on Sheedy's history (the "boat-people" comment mentioned in Foz's article) it's pretty clear that he was having a dig at our game. The little rise smile on his face as he mentions it is a clear giveaway.

Such an archaic and typical response from the Australian's of old.

He's one of those people who you look back on in disbelief at their actions, the same we do for those who were prejudice against women or coloured people.

It simply has no place in our society anywhere - regardless of the fact it was targeted to hurt football, it's prejudice against immigrants and Australia.


Edit: Chocco left this season, but I believe this was the case when Chocco was at the club previously:

And for the record, everyone knows Sheed's doesn't even coach the team - it's all Chocco who used to coach Port Power. Sheed's is only there for PR. Well look how good that's working for them. Absolute muppet!!!

[Agostinho]

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UQnky71odk

And given 'Choco' is an assistant coach at Richmond, I'd be surprised if he was the real coach of GWS.

Anyway, after watching the video again a few times I stand by my opinion. I don't know much about the "boat people" comment he made previously though.

[Interloper]

Maybe the video had been edited but I would have to disagree with the above post.

The video I saw, he made a point of mentioning that the immigration dept is helping WSW get fans - completely unnecessary and prejudice. Why bother make such a backward comment in a question about crowd sizes??? If it really is because AFL is having trouble breaking into the Western Sydney market, then just say that - why make a slur about immigrants at all???

Now going on Sheedy's history (the "boat-people" comment mentioned in Foz's article) it's pretty clear that he was having a dig at our game. The little rise smile on his face as he mentions it is a clear giveaway.

Such an archaic and typical response from the Australian's of old.

He's one of those people who you look back on in disbelief at their actions, the same we do for those who were prejudice against women or coloured people.

It simply has no place in our society anywhere - regardless of the fact it was targeted to hurt football, it's prejudice against immigrants and Australia.

If I heard an anecdote about Sheedy making a stupid/offensive comment in the past I would believe it. If you told me that Craig Foster made up something that never happened I would believe it too. The anecdote means nothing to me.

Regardless. Much of Sheedy's press conference was about the terrible scheduling and a lack of support/promotion for the game, aimed at the AFL or GWS boardroom. and this is something that is worse for them than last year. some examples that I noticed:
*It was 7 weeks into the season and GWS were playing their first home game at their nominal home ground. Imagine if you wanted to see this new fangled round ball game, found the local team the Adelaide Ballkickers, looked up when their next homegame was and found it was 400km away.
*The football records didn't show up.
*I was sold General Admission tickets and told I could sit anywhere on the wing. Only to be told to move once I got there because the seats were reserved, for invisble fans apparently.
*They've switched from using the extra space on their 2.35:1 giant screen to show the rule for every decision to showing ads for Giants membership... to the Giants members.
*Interstate supporters won't show up because they think the games are at Bankstown not the Olympic precinct (I think they are stupid to care, but it's a predictable complaint.)

Continuing on this theme he made the dept. of Immigration comments. I'm assuming it was an attempt to explain what could happen if those issues were solved or at least deflect the blame away from his coaching.

I don't think this comment was particularly accurate, or helpful per se, particularly when taken out of context. The ethnic makeup of Wanderers fans is varied and many of the 'ethnic' looking fans are not migrants themselves. Also, statistics clearly demonstrate that the things the Wanderers did right to attract crowds are play other teams from NSW and win a lot of games.

There is a huge 'BUT...' here though. Every other game in the Wanderers run resulted in (positive) comments about the ethnic makeup of their fans that were either inaccurate or exaggerated. It is the height of hypocrisy to criticise Sheedy and let the previous comments slide. Which is exactly what has happened.

And for the record, everyone knows Sheed's doesn't even coach the team - it's all Chocco who used to coach Port Power. Sheed's is only there for PR. Well look how good that's working for them. Absolute muppet!!!

Williams left at the end of last year to join Richmond as an Assistant. Probably because Sheedy announced he was sticking around for another year. Leon Cameron is the one really coaching now.

[EdDog]

Ah my bad re Chocco - haven't been following him as much this year.

Although I still stand that the comment was unnecessarily prejudice. He didn't need to mention the immigration dept at all. Particularly with the history of football and it being a sport only for the effniks.

[View From The Top]

Frankly the Football world would have been better off just ignoring Sheedy's comments. Just imagine the field day the AFL media will have next time AU, Mariners, SFC or Heart pull a poor crowd...

[shinAUFC]

Now its eddies turn
http://www.news.com.au/national-news/ed ... 6652776987

For what its worth i dont think he has much to answer for, it was not racially motivated and obviously was not meant in that sort of context.

I caught up with a good mate on the weekend and we hit the gym, i called him a gorrilla because he was squating big weight and had put on alot of mass since i seen him last. This was meant as a compliment.(because you know... gorillas are big strong masculine creatures) My mate is a pasty white anglo and loved the compliment.
If he had a different colour skin have i just made a rascist remark? i dont believe so, possibly created an awkward moment among friends.

Sometimes i feel due to political correctness it is impossible to treat everyone the same. Which is almost rascism in itself

[bpowell454]

It's all political correctness getting out of hand, you could go as far to say singling out a race for a certain round of AFL purely for being a minority is racism.

Would be a nightmare to be in the media these days, everything you say is scrutinized and every transcript/recording is so readily available. A simple innocent slip of the tongue is in every persons inbox within minutes.