NO TROLLS Should AFL players bend the knee before each match in 2021?

[mouncey2franklin]

By now you've probably heard about what happened in a recent Rugby match between Ireland and Wales.

Entire Ireland rugby team decides not to 'take the knee' before Six Nations tie against Wales | The Irish Post

NOT ONE Ireland player decided to 'take the knee' before Sunday's match against Wales at the Prin...

www.irishpost.com

I've seen on other forums, e.g. EPL forums, people wondering whether it is time for EPL players to stop bending the knee before each match.

Does anybody know if the AFL (and / or AFLPA) has already released a statement about their plans on this front for 2021?

And what do you think: should bending the knee become an ingrained part of the AFL, and happen before every game from now on?

Or do you want to see the AFL reduce its overt support for the BLM political movement?

 

[Shannon M]

BLM is a political movement. We should let people freely decide if they want to be a part of it.

To quote one of their leaders: “If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation,” Hawk Newsome said during an interview Wednesday evening on “The Story” with Martha MacCallum.

Also: The group, whose co-founder Patrisse Cullors has described herself and fellow co-founder Alicia Garza as “trained Marxists,” removed a page titled “What We Believe” that included its public policy positions as well as describing itself as part of the “global Black family” — a change first reported Monday by the Washington Examiner.

“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable,” the website formerly read.

A partner organization, the Movement for Black Lives, or M4BL, calls for abolishing all police and all prisons. It also calls for a “progressive restructuring of tax codes at the local, state and federal levels to ensure a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth.”

Another M4BL demand is “the retroactive decriminalization, immediate release and record expungement of all drug-related offenses and prostitution and reparations for the devastating impact of the ‘war on drugs’ and criminalization of prostitution.”

 

[Shane Heard]

I don’t think it’s necessary.

The more this knee bending stuff goes on the more diluted the message gets over time.

 

[aussierulesrules]

I think they should do it before every quarter and also every centre bounce, after a goal has been kicked. And when anyone's having a set shot everyone else but the guy on the mark should do it.

 

[mr bagcroft]

Seriously?
No.

 

[Milanista28]

I'm sure they will, the AFL will love the publicity it will bring, they won't care what it means but it will "look good"

 

[rampar]

getting tired of politics in sport. No from me.

 

[Jibroni]

No, sport should only be for entertainment and tearing your hair out.

 

[Underarm]

It's completely up to the players. If it comes from the clubs or the AFL it comes across as disingenuous.

 

[JackFlash]

Of course not. While the cause is worthy you cannot say the approach is, BLM has no intention of being among those activists of the past who won hearts by conveying respectability and changed laws by delivering a message of love and unity. It is a violent, confrontational Marxist movement peppered with hate speech. The AFL would be wise to steer clear of this madness. There is no Martin Luther King or Nelsen Mandela at the head of BLM.

 

[Roylion]

There should be no compulsion for sportspeople to bend the knee for any social or political movement.

 

[Drought Break]

Every sporting event, work place and organisation should have at least 15 minutes of kneeling prior to commencement We have to keep this movement going people

 

[mr bagcroft]

agreed. If players WANT to do it of their own volition, I wouldnt particularly like it but I would respect it.
As a mandate from the AFL? They can go and get right ****ed.

 

[BF Tiger]

Neither here nor there for me. (IMHO) Impact will be diluted over time if they do, so my thinking is it would make more of a statement to see it at certain times, such as when the national anthem is played, Indigenous round, etc.

 

[Obeanie1]

No.

Pretty sure there is a acknowledgement to playing on the land of traditional owners before each game.

That is all that should be required IMO.

I have heard here in the NT at any govt meeting they start with acknowledgement of traditional owners of the land the meeting is being held. At my daughters year 12 graduation there were 10 different speakers. Every single one started with an acknowledgement to traditional owners. 10 times within an hour the same thing was repeated. It came across almost cult like repeating the same words over and over.

If you force people to repeat these things too much they lose their impact IMO. Its fine to do it at the proper time and place but how much should the message be forced down people throats. You do that then the message becomes lost.

 

[Plugger35]

The players were bending a knee before every Big Bash cricket match this summer and it just got ridiculous after a while and lost it's impact.

Doing it every now and again, like for the first round of the season or for indigenous round would be OK but not before every match as it becomes meaningless.

Don't know why there would be an uproar over Irish and Wales rugby players not taking a knee either, since when did this protest become compulsory?

 

[Priddis Is Done]

No

And

Get stuffed

This is a pisstake surely?

 

[HaroLad]

Every sporting event, work place and organisation should have at least 15 minutes of kneeling prior to commencement We have to keep this movement going people

15 minutes?

There should be perpetual kneeling - for everyone, always. If you wish to mobilise, you must crawl. No white man should ever walk again.

 

[Chief]

15 minutes?

There should be perpetual kneeling - for everyone, always. If you wish to mobilise, you must crawl. No white man should ever walk again.

You're an idiot.

 

[basashi]

once you get over about 5 or 6 people doing it as a group then you know at least one is just doing it to fit in. forced or railroaded observance of anything is worthless.

 

[RichLeMonde]

Of course not. While the cause is worthy you cannot say the approach is, BLM has no intention of being among those activists of the past who won hearts by conveying respectability and changed laws by delivering a message of love and unity. It is a violent, confrontational Marxist movement peppered with hate speech. The AFL would be wise to steer clear of this madness. There is no Martin Luther King or Nelsen Mandela at the head of BLM.

Nelson Mandela was the leader of a Marxist terrorist organisation - they can be the good guys

 

[Catsnlakers]

By now you've probably heard about what happened in a recent Rugby match between Ireland and Wales.

Entire Ireland rugby team decides not to 'take the knee' before Six Nations tie against Wales | The Irish Post

NOT ONE Ireland player decided to 'take the knee' before Sunday's match against Wales at the Prin...

www.irishpost.com

I've seen on other forums, e.g. EPL forums, people wondering whether it is time for EPL players to stop bending the knee before each match.

Does anybody know if the AFL (and / or AFLPA) has already released a statement about their plans on this front for 2021?

And what do you think: should bending the knee become an ingrained part of the AFL, and happen before every game from now on?

Or do you want to see the AFL reduce its overt support for the BLM political movement?

If players choose to bend the knee that’s fine, if they don’t want to that’s fine also.....Let’s allow the players an ability to choose for once.

 

[Chief]

I love the use of “bend the knee” like it’s some sort of subjugation.

 

[Vassp]

Players should do what they used to do, which is to follow the tradition of the sport with respect to its core values.

BLM movements and the like should never enter a sports arena.

we really need to keep sport as pure as sport can be, once we dilute it with movements or political statements etc then we take away from the sport itself. today it may be bend a knee to BLM tomorrow it may be bend over to vaccines etc ...

In this day and age there are many avenues where players (if they choose) can get their thoughts across. We don’t need BLM or the like messing it up.

 

[Chief]

Players should do what they used to do, which is to follow the tradition of the sport with respect to its core values.

BLM movements and the like should never enter a sports arena.

we really need to keep sport as pure as sport can be, once we dilute it with movements or political statements etc then we take away from the sport itself. today it may be bend a knee to BLM tomorrow it may be bend over to vaccines etc ...

In this day and age there are many avenues where players (if they choose) can get their thoughts across. We don’t need BLM or the like messing it up.

Yeah. Not gonna happen.