HAWTHORN, the AFL and Launceston City Council were yesterday united in condemning the anonymous fan who racially abused Lance Franklin at Aurora Stadium on Saturday.
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All three parties are hopeful that the individual who called the Hawks' indigenous forward a "black c---" several times can be identified and punished.
DO YOU KNOW MORE? HELP US FIND THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE. ANY INFORMATION WE RECEIVE WILL BE PASSED ON TO THE AFL ... EMAIL online@examiner.com.au OR SMS TO 0427 436 786
The offender is believed to have been situated at the city end of the ground in the eastern terrace forward pocket.
The incident was described by Hawthorn chief executive Stuart Fox as "disappointing", while Launceston City Council general manager Robert Dobrzynski said it was "deeply saddening" and AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou dubbed it "socially unacceptable".
Television footage of the game against West Coast showed Franklin, who kicked six goals and was best on ground, reacting suddenly at one point.
He did not mention the abuse when interviewed after the game but later told a teammate who informed the club, prompting Mr Fox to call a press conference yesterday.
"I sat down with Lance and had a good chat to him," he said.
"He's very disappointed and probably shocked that it happened.
"Lance is extremely disappointed for other people who would have heard it as well, families with young kids. There's certainly no room for it in our game or society.
"He wants to move on pretty quickly. He's not the sort of guy to take action but was disappointed."
Mr Fox urged anybody who may have witnessed the behaviour to contact authorities.
"I would hope that someone out there heard it. Buddy (Franklin) heard it very clearly, it caught his attention during play.
"If anyone was there we'd certainly encourage them to get in touch because obviously we'd be in a position to take some action. Until we can find the offender we really can't do too much."
Hawthorn has been in contact with Aurora Stadium management with a view to creating a system similar to the MCG where abusive fans can be reported.
"If we could have isolated the person at the time they could have been ejected from the ground and we could have taken further action," Mr Fox said.
"It's one we want to support Buddy on. We've got a number of indigenous players in our team and we want to stamp it out.
"We've made inroads on this over many years and it feels like we've just taken a backward step."
Mr Demetriou hoped the fan could be made to face the music.
"I'd like to think the person responsible for these comments would be big enough to come forward and apologise to Buddy (Franklin) for what happened and also to those people at the game who had to listen to this abuse," he told afl.com.au.
He said such behaviour should be "dealt with harshly".
"This would involve being ejected from the ground, having their membership revoked and also being subjected to equal opportunity and anti-discrimination laws," Mr Demetriou said.
READ MORE EDITORIAL: Page 20
