“No We’re Not”: Adelaidians Just Laugh When Crows Say City Above Racist Booing

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

The Adelaide Crows have today assured the nation that the chorus of boos hurled at Collingwood defender Isaac Quaynor “do not reflect the real Adelaide,” insisting their city is above the kind of egregious racism that played out in front of national television on Thursday night.

Club spokespeople rushed to say that their fans are “better than this,” despite the fact that the jeering was loud, sustained, and coming from thousands of their own paid-up members. Everyday Adelaidians reportedly greeted the statement with the same knowing laugh they usually reserve for outsiders who claim Hindley Street is up-and-coming.

“It’s not us? Of course it’s us,” said one bloke strolling through Rundle Mall this morning with a pair of sunglasses resting on the back of his neck.

“If it wasn’t us, who the hell was it?”

The AFL, meanwhile, has found itself once again explaining why racism never seems to leave the code. League executives have promised “serious discussions,” the same phrase used every year since Nicky Winmar pointed to his skin in 1993, and every week since Port Adelaide fans were caught throwing bananas at Indigenous players.

Commentators nationwide described the Adelaide Oval crowd as “classless” and “pathetic.”

Quaynor himself brushed it off, but the optics have left the league with yet another round of crisis PR.

For locals, though, the whole scandal is little more than another gag.

“They reckon Adelaide is better than this,” said another punter from Glenelg.

“Mate, we’re barely better than Port Adelaide.”

As the laughter continues across South Australia, the AFL is left to quietly admit that booing, slurs and bananas from the terraces might not be a bug in the system, but the system itself.

More to come.