Rumour Multiple GWS players are set to be suspended to start the 2025 season after distasteful costumes and skits from their post-season function

[Romeoh1]

Because they're out in public, at pubs, different to a hired venue yes I know, not the point, now we have a precedent set in what was supposed to be not public at all.

Certain costumes and behaviour someone somewhere will find offence to, so clubs and players will be averse to any publicity involving the 'boys letting their hair down'

Can’t agree- virtually all the mad Mondays are conducted in a reasonable manner by majority of the players- can see no reason that won’t continue. Of course they can let their hair down-just don’t be a duffer-pretty simple. 99% of them can manage that. Can’t see why gws can’t.
And also, it’s pretty naive to think a public footy club of professional players can conduct any sort of event without anyone noticing. Not sure on what planet that would ever be the case in these days of an ever present social media. Suspect it would have been only a matter of time before images from the event appeared on Instagram etc. Crikey 0gws are all over the social media scene. Pretty savvy when they want to be.

 

[Carringbush2010]

"Hi, I'm Toby Greene, captain of the GWS Giants and I would like to book this venu for the 16th September for our Mad Monday. Just so you know, we are planning on playing dress ups and simulating acts of rape and slavery scenes from movies, is that ok with you?"

Yeah, sure they would have been totally cool with it...

Well I guess most people that also are staff at bucks and hens parties don't have issue with similar incidents usually, otherwise there'd be shedloads of complaints each week to an authority, and those pubs wouldn't stay open.

To most people they'd be just 'meh, just keep it to your private function room'

So yeah your argument is weak.

 

[Muddiemoose]

Exactly, so what's the point of hiring the venue to be private? May as well not have hired it in the first place.

Like I said in post 2028..........

What should've happened is

-footy players hire a public venue for private event
-staff at the event should've been informed of what is going to take place
-if staff are uncomfortable, they make a request for it not to go ahead
-being the society that we are now, those costumes and skits don't happen

Or if you value liberal principles

-if staff are uncomfortable, they make a request for it not to go ahead
-being that this venue is being hired by a customer the staff members are given the choice to work the shift or not
-this doesn't go public, the AFL save face and don't have to be hypocritical, no damage done.

Do you have an issue with the liberal principles?

Or do you view that the staff members have overriding right to the liberal principles over the paying customer?

That’s not how hiring spaces work at all

The only “private” aspect is that you have control of the guests nothing to do with staff

If you want a truly private event have it at a house with no 3rd party catering, security, ect not a commercial premises

You can’t just hire a joint and can have a free for all

 

[Carringbush2010]

Can’t agree- virtually all the mad Mondays are conducted in a reasonable manner by majority of the players

Again, subject to opinion, what you or I consider 'reasonable manner' is not to others. Yeah I know the 'others' are the minuscule minority but that minority is always catered for.

Laws and rules for lowest common denominator and all that.

Of course they can let their hair down-just don’t be a duffer-pretty simple. 99% of them can manage that.

Again, subject to opinion, someone somewhere will be offended.

So to ensure there are no consequences, let's not have a mad Monday.

And also, it’s pretty naive to think a public footy club of professional players can conduct any sort of event without anyone noticing. Not sure on what planet that would ever be the case in these days of an ever present social media. Suspect it would have been only a matter of time before images from the event appeared on Instagram etc. Crikey 0gws are all over the social media scene. Pretty savvy when they want to be.

And this is the problem.

Not very good for privacy is it, which is what this event was supposed to be, in other words the 'we don't want the public to know'

 

[Carringbush2010]

That’s not how hiring spaces work at all

The only “private” aspect is that you have control of the guests nothing to do with staff

If you want a truly private event have it at a house with no 3rd party catering, security, ect not a commercial premises

You can’t just hire a joint and can have a free for all

Agreed and that's the point.

Why bother having a 'private' function if it can't be 'private'?

And you can't do it at someone's house because you might be seen in what some would consider an offensive costume before you go in, security might take offence. If you're gonna have security you may as well have catering, more people that might get offended.

Because this private function ended up being not private is why we're eleventy billion comments in. But it seems you can't have a truly private function anymore, and because society panders to the overly sensitive, it'd be stupid to hold private functions.

Not very liberal is it, in fact it's illiberal.

So I'll ask these questions again, because I'd like your opinion on them.

Do you have an issue with the liberal principles?

Or do you view that the staff members have overriding right to the liberal principles over the paying customer?

 

[Kennedy84]

Unbelievable, so many voluntary corporate stasi around, and people wonder how it was continued in East Germany.

Nothing illegal happened, distasteful? Depends on who you ask.

People who want to clamp down on freedom of expression, freedom of speech, disgust me.

 

[Underarm]

Well I guess most people that also are staff at bucks and hens parties don't have issue with similar incidents usually, otherwise there'd be shedloads of complaints each week to an authority, and those pubs wouldn't stay open.

To most people they'd be just 'meh, just keep it to your private function room'

So yeah your argument is weak.

If that's what goes on at bucks parties you go to, you need better friends.

 

[Underarm]

Unbelievable, so many voluntary corporate stasi around, and people wonder how it was continued in East Germany.

Nothing illegal happened, distasteful? Depends on who you ask.

People who want to clamp down on freedom of expression, freedom of speech, disgust me.

I'm asking you. Do you think making a joke out of sexual assault is funny?

 

[Romeoh1]

Again, subject to opinion, what you or I consider 'reasonable manner' is not to others. Yeah I know the 'others' are the minuscule minority but that minority is always catered for.

Laws and rules for lowest common denominator and all that.

Again, subject to opinion, someone somewhere will be offended.

So to ensure there are no consequences, let's not have a mad Monday.

And this is the problem.

Not very good for privacy is it, which is what this event was supposed to be, in other words the 'we don't want the public to know'

Well the ‘reasonable person’ ( and that is applied to everyone in our society), is the theory underpinning a lot of our legal structures and think you’ll find the vast majority of people do in fact know how to conduct themselves in a reasonable manner. There’s a bit of room for movement but it’s generally not needed because most people get it.
Feel like your reactions here are a bit hysterical really. Just doesn’t seem worthy of making such a big deal.
And again-your concept of privacy might need brushing up. Everything gets out nowadays- naive to think otherwise.

 

[Romeoh1]

Unbelievable, so many voluntary corporate stasi around, and people wonder how it was continued in East Germany.

Nothing illegal happened, distasteful? Depends on who you ask.

People who want to clamp down on freedom of expression, freedom of speech, disgust me.

lol- yep this is so like the stasi dude.

 

[iameviljez]

The AFL could use this as an example though for bucks parties that players have.

If they don't hand down sanctions for similar incidents at bucks parties then that'd be hypocritical.

I guess that doesn't matter coz the AFL are already hypocritical.

The key difference with this and any other event is that someone needs to be in earshot and upset enough to complain.

Besides, this is not a problem of Whacky Wednesday, or buck parties, or drunken behaviour. It’s a story of acting out loud rape jokes as amateur theatre for people who are just trying to do their job. Many people have an outrageous and filthy stag do without doing this.

 

[Kennedy84]

lol- yep this is so like the stasi dude.

The voluntary monitoring, for what is essentially corporate interests, I find baffling....atleast the stasi were coerced.

 

[iameviljez]

Not very good for privacy is it, which is what this event was supposed to be, in other words the 'we don't want the public to know'

That is not what a private function is. A private function is only one where the space is reserved for you and your invitees; it is not a secret function for you to do as you wish.

 

[Romeoh1]

The voluntary monitoring, for what is essentially corporate interests, I find baffling....atleast the stasi were coerced.

Regardless, your comparison to east Germany is ludicrous.

 

[iameviljez]

If that's what goes on at bucks parties you go to, you need better friends.

Isn’t that weird - at all the buck’s parties I have gone to, not one person has performed improv theatre about rape.

 

[Kennedy84]

Regardless, your comparison to east Germany is ludicrous.

Hardly, voluntary snitching in order to influence people's behaviour....it has more in common than you think.

 

[Romeoh1]

Hardly, voluntary snitching in order to influence people's behaviour....it has more in common than you think.

Haha -some perspective wouldn’t hurt.
What the players did wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good enough.
Cop your right whack, grow a brain and move on. Pretty simple.

 

[Kennedy84]

I'm asking you. Do you think making a joke out of sexual assault is funny?

It depends, if it mocks the accuser, mocks the act, then I see no harm. If I thought it was distasteful. Remember, they never committed the acts. Do you get offended when these issues are depicted in movies?

Is it best that these issues are never spoken about again, brushed under the rug?

 

[Kennedy84]

Haha -some perspective wouldn’t hurt.
What the players did wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good enough.
Cop your right whack, grow a brain and move on. Pretty simple.

Why do they need to take, a whack? They didn't physically hurt anyone. If people find it distasteful, criticise them with words, don't associate with those people don't support them. Plenty of ways to show disapproval.

 

[Toump Ass]

We’re on shaky ground if we’re saying depictions of sexual assault are ok IF the level of ‘artistry and sensitivity’ is considered to have a met some sort of arbitrarily defined benchmark.

Surely you can see the issue?

Use whatever benchmark you like, common sense says using sexual assault to get a few laughs in a comedy skit is likely to cause offense.

Edit: nevermind this has been mentioned already.

 

[Romeoh1]

Why do they need to take, a whack? They didn't physically hurt anyone. If people find it distasteful, criticise them with words, don't associate with those people don't support them. Plenty of ways to show disapproval.

Happy for them to take a whack ( sexual assault isn’t funny according to most reasonable people?) but yep, maybe the consequences could have been lighter. But are they that harsh anyway? It’s not that tough to miss a couple of games or get a 5000 fine is it?

 

[bomberclifford]

I'm asking you. Do you think making a joke out of sexual assault is funny?

Sometimes, yes.

 

[Carringbush2010]

If that's what goes on at bucks parties you go to, you need better friends.

I didn't say 'exactly the same', was pointing out that behaviour at bucks and hens parties are going to be offensive, albeit to a very few.

That's the point, only morons would do what gws players did deliberately out in public.

Apologies if not clear.

 

[Carringbush2010]

Well the ‘reasonable person’ ( and that is applied to everyone in our society), is the theory underpinning a lot of our legal structures and think you’ll find the vast majority of people do in fact know how to conduct themselves in a reasonable manner. There’s a bit of room for movement but it’s generally not needed because most people get it.
Feel like your reactions here are a bit hysterical really. Just doesn’t seem worthy of making such a big deal.
And again-your concept of privacy might need brushing up. Everything gets out nowadays- naive to think otherwise.

So you admit that 'reasonable person' will vary in definition from one person to another.

So then you'll also concede that this could not possibly have been a 'private' function, because the intent was for it not to be public.

I guess then you don't agree with the below, then I guess you're not a liberal.

What should've happened is

-footy players hire a public venue for private event
-staff at the event should've been informed of what is going to take place
-if staff are uncomfortable, they make a request for it not to go ahead
-being the society that we are now, those costumes and skits don't happen

Or if you value liberal principles

-if staff are uncomfortable, they make a request for it not to go ahead
-being that this venue is being hired by a customer the staff members are given the choice to work the shift or not
-this doesn't go public, the AFL save face and don't have to be hypocritical, no damage done.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I feel for the AFL. They’ve taken the commercially-expedient pathway, which i think is also the ethically questionable one.

But they’re a commercial organisation. When they take a moral stance, it’s only because that stance is also the one that happens to be better for their brand.

If i were running the comp, where i’m judged on commercial KPIs, i’d have done what they did.

The real problem is us and the media (social and traditional) that manipulates us into responding emotionally to absolutely everything.

I don't accept that because if you're going to take a commercial stance over ethics you have to apply it across the board not pick and choose when to do it which us what they've done.

They also won't own it and be honest about why they are applying the penalties. The CEO of the afl who is ex ex lawyer no less is standing there blatantly pretending the afl cares about women's rights or domestic violence etc when the afl couldn't care less about it (their approach to gambling shows it).

If anything I'm most annoyed at the journalists. When he started spouting this they should have interrupted him, pointed out the gambling issue and asked him why the afl is being hypocritical. And when he refused to answer it properly (which is likely) the journalists should have all walked out of the press conference and refused to their editors to cover the story. Sure the afl probably would have put a spin press conference on their website anyway but at least the journalists wouldn't be condoning such lies and spin and they would be forcing the afl to own their own falsehood.

Unfortunately most people don't know how to critically think and base their views on how the media frames stories to them so this matters. As a society we need to demand a hell of a lot better from both our sporting bodies like the afl and the media. It's obvious why society has such a problem dealing with these issues when it doesn't stand up for ethics.