When a video of two young AFL players rating women as part of a viral TikTok game hit the news on Monday, the cries for their blood hit like a tidal wave.
Collingwood young guns Jack Ginnivan, 19, and Isaac Quaynor, 22, were given the modern day equivalent of a public hanging, without a trial, when those that weren’t their target audience laid eyes on it.
The only reason it had even been found was because media outlets were trawling social media to see how other Collingwood players had spent their time off in wake of the Jordan De Goey Bali ‘scandal’.
Jordan De Goey was videoed have a great time with Remy Jackson. He was fined and forced to apologise for doing so
Remy Jackson said she had no issues about her interactions with Jordan De Goey
Jack Ginnivan, 19, and Isaac Quaynor, 22, were forced to apologise after posting a video to TikTok of them playing a viral rating game
De Goey – who it seems ought have the maturity of a 50-year old at age 26 – had made the cardinal sin of being caught on social media having a good time while on holiday.
Making things worse for him, he had been partying with a buxom blonde who appeared to be nothing less than smitten.
Dead keen you might suggest.
De Goey’s public flaying was widely justified through a brief instance in the video when he appeared to expose that woman’s breast in the nightclub.
Remy Jackson later posted an Instagram story saying she was not bothered by De Goey’s behaviour.
‘Hey everyone, I can’t believe the backlash towards Jordy and myself over here in Bali … nothing to see here,’ she wrote.
Unlike his team mates, De Goey had some form for behaving badly in nightspots.
During last year’s off season he had been arrested in the United States while partying in another session that was caught on video.
In January, he pleaded guilty to one count of harassment in the second degree, which in the US is not even considered a crime.
Veteran journalist Lisa Wilkinson’s Logie’s speech and resulting media commentary caused delay in the rape trial of former parliamentary staffer Brittany Higgins
In August he had sexual assault charges withdrawn and was fined $2075 after pleading guilty to speeding and sending text messages when stationary at traffic lights.
He’s hardly Wayne Carey – who continues to work in the media and pontificate over others after being convicted of assaulting a woman and police in two countries.
As ex-footballers who now make their money taking pot shots at actual footballers piled on, De Goey rightfully defended himself.
‘I want to openly address the relentless pursuit and persecution of athletes by the media to create an uneducated, bias and ill-informed narrative that has gone too far,’ he wrote on Instagram before club officials got in his ear.
Days later he was handed a $25,000 suspended fine by Collingwood and no doubt handed a carefully manicured apology from the club in hope of dispersing the wolves.
A front page article the next day spouted that fine had ‘let down all women’.
Turn the page and there’s the article on media veteran Lisa Wilkinson’s disgraceful Logie speech on Brittany Higgins, which pushed back an actual rape trial.
You’ve got to wonder what disrespected ‘all women’ more.
Jordan De Goey doing what he does best, playing football
Isaac Quaynor takes a screamer over Dylan Moore on June 5. He has come under fire for participating in childish games off field
The lightning speed attacks on Ginnivan and Quaynor were even worse.
By Tuesday morning, the video those two appeared in was running across newspapers, television, radio and the internet.
Today show host Karl Stefanovic was among those to condemn the players.
‘You are not just representing yourself, but your club and the sport in general,’ Stefanovic said.
‘What it says to me is that they don’t either care, or have knowledge that that kind of stuff is really hurtful.’
Domestic violence ‘dial-a’quotes’ were again stirred up to pour fuel on the fire of what we are led to believe is Australia’s disgust over what these three men had done.
One publication went so far as to roll out former VFL legend Phil Cleary, whose sister Vicki died in 1987 at the hands of her violent boyfriend.
Karl Stefonovic slammed the Collingwood players for being disrespectful to women (pictured: Karl and new wife Jasmine Yarbrough)
Jack Ginnivan has excited Collingwood fans with his form on the field. His form off-field has upset people who have no interest in football
On the day the pair made the video, more than 60,000 other people had tweeted ‘She’s a 10’.
On Tuesday afternoon, after a full day of being smashed by the ‘woke brigade’, the pair hit TikTok again to apologise.
‘Hey guys, just wanted to jump on here to apologise for the TikTok video,’ Quaynor said.
‘We did a trend that we did not think about before posting and we’re really sorry for making the mistake of participating in it and then posting it.’
The reality is, these three are more victims of the outrage mob than crimes against women.
Last month, The Federal Court ordered Telstra to pay a penalty of $50 million plus costs for its treatment of Indigenous customers in rural and remote parts of Australia.
At the end of 2020, the AFL signed a two year extension with Foxtel and Telstra which would see the league receive $946 million over the final two years of the broadcasting contract.
Where was the outrage from the AFL then?
Telstra – a major sponsor of the AFL – even got in the rating game act
Bulldog Bailey Smith avoided long term damage to his career after falling on his sword over this damning image
Telstra’s penalty had come just 10 weeks after Collingwood was exposed over its ‘Do Better’ report – an independent review that challenged Collingwood to take a leadership position in Australian sport by confronting racism.
The AFL stuck its head in the sand when it came to truly disgraceful behaviour by its major sponsor.
But it’s more than happy to chime in whenever a footballer threatens its woke brand.
The truth of the matter is De Goey, Ginnivan and Quaynor – like everyone else their age – have lived their lives surrounded by cameras and social media.
De Goey ought not be sanctioned for dancing with willing babes.
He’s an AFL footballer at the top of his game in a world where hiding from the public is near on impossible.
And if it is achievable, it’s probably not much fun for a young bloke in the prime of life.
While Bulldog Bailey Smith copped some heat after being caught out doing drugs on camera, he seems to have been spared a larger pasting due to coming out with claims of ongoing mental health issues.
And he’s a Bulldog, not a Magpie.
This lot ought not been banned from social media because in all reality it could one day be a source of income for them long after they finish football.
And they ought not be so readily judged, vilified, fined and forced to apologise everytime the woke police knock on their – or their club’s – door.
Disclaimer: Wayne Flower is a Collingwood fan of 47 years
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