You should be happy the AFLW made that decision. I’m sure it wasn’t a case of indigenous players and spectators just stating a weak preference but otherwise standing ready to back a decision to honour QEII to the hilt. The AFLW was obviously told there would be considerable blowback if it went down that path.
Holding a minute’s silence requires everybody to be on board. Imagine if the crowd had been largely compliant but activists played Beds are Burning, Treaty or the Sex Pistol’s God Save the Queen via portable speakers. They wouldn’t have needed concert-style speakers to thoroughly disrupt the silence.
What about if the players took a knee during, or turned their backs on, the show of respect? What about if they broke ranks and talked amongst themselves? Unlike the NFL where right-wing billionaire owners were able to boycott players who took a knee, the AFLW had no direct means to punish indigenous players and even less ability to discipline the crowd. Maybe they could have installed snipers on top of the stands with instructions to shoot anybody showing disrespect but that might have been controversial.
Such actual signs of disrespect would have caused far more controversy than merely deciding not to have a minute’s silence. Of course, FoxFooty and Ch 7 could have run packages before each game. But maybe they also thought this wouldn’t win them too many friends.
Just recognise that this decision was politically and commercially the most sensible one. It’s just bad luck for Liz that she died during Indigenous Round.
Holding a minute’s silence requires everybody to be on board. Imagine if the crowd had been largely compliant but activists played Beds are Burning, Treaty or the Sex Pistol’s God Save the Queen via portable speakers. They wouldn’t have needed concert-style speakers to thoroughly disrupt the silence.
What about if the players took a knee during, or turned their backs on, the show of respect? What about if they broke ranks and talked amongst themselves? Unlike the NFL where right-wing billionaire owners were able to boycott players who took a knee, the AFLW had no direct means to punish indigenous players and even less ability to discipline the crowd. Maybe they could have installed snipers on top of the stands with instructions to shoot anybody showing disrespect but that might have been controversial.
Such actual signs of disrespect would have caused far more controversy than merely deciding not to have a minute’s silence. Of course, FoxFooty and Ch 7 could have run packages before each game. But maybe they also thought this wouldn’t win them too many friends.
Just recognise that this decision was politically and commercially the most sensible one. It’s just bad luck for Liz that she died during Indigenous Round.