Redneck AFL

[AFL Warrior]

GEELONG has called on the AFL to name a recruiter who said his club would not recruit an Aboriginal player unless he had at least one white parent.

The AFL has spoken to a number of clubs about concerns over recruiting Indigenous players after charges were laid against Melbourne star Liam Jurrah following an alleged machete attack in central Australia.

One recruiter reportedly told the league that it would not recruit an Indigenous player if he had two black parents.

Geelong football manager Neil Balme said the AFL had to name the club involved to protect the reputations of all other recruiters.

"The AFL needs to publicise who this is. Otherwise we are all tarred,'' Balme said on SEN today.

The league's community engagement officer Jason Mifsud said several clubs had indicated they had concerns about recruiting Aboriginal players because they could be more difficult to handle.

"I have had direct conversations with a number of recruiting officers. A recruiter from one club told me that, 'Unless they have a white parent we are not going to draft an Aboriginal player and our club would not be alone in that'," Mifsud told Fairfax Media.

"That is a mindset that is permeating back through parts of the industry. Fortunately, there are still many clubs that embrace Aboriginal talent.

"When people start talking about race as part of a recruiting decision, and then splitting that out to be a question of mixed race, fundamentally people are going into areas they have no idea about. It is ignorant and offensive."

Brisbane Lions champion Chris Johnson, now an AFL engagement and talent co-ordinator, says the AFL has gone backwards on Indigenous talent.

"The situation right now is something that I thought would probably never come, I thought we had gotten past that but as I said before, we've taken a step backwards, so we've got a lot of work to do," Johnson told The Footy Show last night.