Our lack of Indigenous players is embarrassing.

[Raw Hammer]

Bereft of any type of ethnicity.

We’re a very beige, bland white-bread kind of team team. Cox is about as ‘exotic’ as we get.

The most diverse thing about Collingwood is our club colours.

[Woods]

Come on guys. Really? Three pages of waffle about why there aren't more indigenous players at the Pies. But nobody mentions the bleeding obvious - the diligent work of Harry O in making sure that Collingwood is the very last club they would choose as a 'destination club' (ably assisted at times by Eddie).

Remember the SBS doco on the racism he claimed he experienced at the Pies?

Go check out H's Facebook page to check out his involvement in indigenous activism: https://www.facebook.com/heritierlumumba8/?ref=br_rs

Or check out this video from earlier this year when he was 'getting woke' to indigenous issues with others seeking to 'decolonise' themselves from white society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZWwFo82Dd8

That's what Collingwood is up against. Any talented aboriginal player choosing to join the Pies would be considered among his fellows as a traitor to his race.

Collingwood lost this battle to recruit indigenous talent when it did not sue H over his defamatory claims of racism towards him at the club. Now we must live with the consequences.

[Mr Miyagi]

At Collingwood the Riolis wouldn't get away with any of the shit they're getting away with at their clubs. Melbourne's under a microscope, and Collingwood gets the worst of that. For example, Caroline Wilson would have been bleating about Willie Rioli and our bad club culture a long time before he actually got caught for anything.

And it goes back to Nicky Winmar. Collingwood supporters have the reputation for being racist bogans. It doesn't matter how far from the truth that is, how unfair it is, but that's how we're painted by everyone else. I even remember Eric Bana on an American TV show slagging us off as racist bogans everyone in Australia hates (yet he'd champion himself as being for diversity and against racism and prejudice, go figure).

[ronrat]

[doriswilgus]

The problem isn't about indigenous players not wanting to come to the club,it's the other way around.Clubs pick players in the draft,not the other way around.The players have to go to the club that drafted them.The problem is that we haven't been drafting indigenous players for a number of years.It's starting to hurt the club because we're missing out on the speed,skill and x factor that these players produce.

[Doug44]

I must say I'm in whole hearted agreement here. I was actually going to post something similar so it's great that I'm not the only one who feels this. For a number of reasons, but two especially.



1. Our history and how it affects our growth.

Wells has retired, and Varcoe is probably touch and go, like a lot of players, on whether he gets another year. He's probably 50/50. So assuming we don't draft an indigenous player, which history shows we won't, there's a 50/50 chance we won't have one indigenous player on the list next year.

This would be bad enough PR for any club given that 10% of AFL players are indigenous, but given our recent history (I say recent because we shouldn't literally white wash the fact that every club's history is racist), the Nicky Winmar incident, the Monkhorst/Long incident, and Adam Goodes incident, we are the last club who should be accepting this.

We want to be growing beyond the team that everybody hates and you're born into supporting. Melbourne is the fastest growing city in Australia, and one of the fastest growing cities in the world per capita. People are moving to Melbourne, be it from Northern states without a team or from other countries. Many are picking up our great game and I feel like we are not the go to club.

If we're still seen as a racist bogan club (a tag which I think is unfair by the way and in itself steeped in pre war classism), we can't afford for this to be an obvious avenue of attack.

Don't just assume that the growth in Richmond's membership is because people came out of the woodwork after 37 years and started buying memberships once they won the flag. They have grown their supporter base and are doing so at a rate much higher than any other club. This is not just the bandwagon phenomenon, although it does help. It started before 2017.

As a young person who has lived in and around Richmond, I can tell you that there are thousands of people who have to moved to Melbourne from other parts of Australia, or the world (especially the UK), live in or around Richmond, and have picked Richmond as a club. The fact that the G is right there and the Richmond pub culture is still thriving (because of games being played at the G) makes it an easy choice to both want to live there and/or support that club.

While supporters of Collingwood, Carlton etc hate Richmond in a rivalry sense, there is not the same hatred towards Richmond as there is Collingwood. They've almost become the successful and widely supported Fitzroy.

Collingwood is giving people less reasons to hate the club (until Eddie opens his mouth). The documentary won't be watched by many people other than supporters but it reflects a club that is changing and knows the importance of that change. This is still a blight though. If we want to grow as a club, we need to grow our supporter base. It is pleasing to see an increasing amount of people from a multicultural background at games, it must be said. But while we have the stigma of being seen by some as racist towards indigenous Australian's, that will turn a lot of people off.



2. Diversity on the list leads to success on the field

Look at the strength of our forward line in 2018 - the swoop squad. No one player was the same, it's very hard to match up on. I'm not just saying this because Varcoe was a part of this, just using it as an example of the benefits of a list that doesn't have too many of the same type of player.

Watching the first three quarters last week, it felt the opposite to what it did last year. We're one dimensional, and too easy to work out. A lot of that is because Cox and De Goey weren't out there, but Varcoe was an omission as well.

This is tricky because I do think it's potentially a bit racist to stereotype indigenous players as fast, skilful, "magical". I noticed this stereotype especially when the On The Couch panel were talking about the West Coast forward line. It's very problematic.

In saying that, if we did have 5 or 6 players on our list who were indigenous, rather than just two (one available), there's a fair chance our side on Saturday would have been more balanced and would have kicked more than 7 goals.




I could go on and on about the social responsibility Collingwood has, what it's role is in this space, but this is not a political forum so I'll just stick with those two main points.

I respect the "pick the best player based on our needs" argument. But even in response to that, having a more diverse list, especially with more indigenous players, would make us an even better team.

Given our lack of indigenous players, I would like to see Varcoe get another year, and for us to select one or two in the drafts.

[Dark Beanie]

All this discussion because Richmond won and have indigenous players in their team.

Diversity is good, tokenism is not.

If you read past threads some posters think Trav Varcoe is past it. But hey just keep in the list because of his colour.

[Woods]

[watt price tully]

[watt price tully]

[watt price tully]

[stui magpie]

We tend to draft according to need. Let's not forget with all the talk abour Marlion Pickett and Richmond taking a chance after he went to jail as a teenager, we drafted Andy Krakouer only 14 months after he got out of jail and he played in the 2011 GF.

In this years mid season draft, Richmond had the pick before us and took Pickett, several other clubs could have taken him but didn't. We took Noble as a replacement for Murray. Small fast backman.

If any young Indigenous player had concerns about coming to Collingwood I'd just suggest they have a chat to Andy, or Varcoe, or Wells or Leon Davis. Even Tony Armstrong.

I'll be interested to see if we get any kids out of our Indigenous zone

[magpieazza]

Travis, Daniel and Isaac all say hello.

BTW iirc Bucks had a clean out of players that didnt contribute positively to the culture of the club and the players he cleaned out were non indigenous....

Rat pack.....remember.....yep. Swanny was last one left at club but continued to play until breaking his foot.

Theres nothing racist about this club. They have a great indigenous program called the Barrawarn program (wurundjeri for magpie ) We have re engaged in the Reconciliation action plan also. Debby Lovett ( pretty sure she is still there) runs the indigenous program and dont forget we have Jodie Sizer on our board of directors.

Ive visited the club through my work on many occasions. I work with young indigenous males and Collingwood have provided us with alot of cultural and educational experiences to help these young fellas. We gifted Collingwood a didgeridoo for all their time and effort and we will always be partnered with them in some capacity.

In no way shape or form is Collingwood deliberately not recruiting Indigenous players. Everyone would be picked on merit so please lets not stir a pot thats not there. We have moved on from the dark days and we are now leaders in the field of human equality.

[inxs88]

[Mr Miyagi]