Geelong Bans Mad Monday Events After Bailey Smith鈥檚 Homophobic Posts Slammed
The Geelong Football Club has confirmed it will scrap Mad Monday events in their current form, after former AFL player Mitch Brown publicly condemned a homophobic reference made by Bailey Smith during the team鈥檚 post-season celebrations.
Following Geelong鈥檚 Grand Final loss, images and videos from the club鈥檚 Mad Monday event were shared widely on social media.
Players turned up in costumes, with Bailey Smith arriving dressed as Tristan Ludlow 鈥� Brad Pitt鈥檚 character in Legends of the Fall.
A post from Smith showed him and team captain, Patrick Dangerfield dressed as a cowboy from the TV show Yellowstone.
鈥淥r brokeback mountain depends how ya look at it,鈥� Smith captioned a photo of the pair recreating a pose from Brokeback Mountain. Underneath, a second caption read, 鈥渢his is what losing a granny does to ya. Alright phone away now bye鈥�.
The film, a landmark queer love story, has long been used in popular culture as shorthand for mocking men, using homophobic undertones.
Mitch Brown鈥檚 calls out Bailey Smith & Geelong
Former West Coast Eagles player Mitch Brown, who came out as bisexual earlier this year, publicly condemned the post.
鈥淟ast time I checked, losing a grand final doesn鈥檛 make you gay, but being homophobic definitely makes you a loser,鈥� he said.
Geelong responds to homophobic posts
Geelong is known for being the ‘top club’ when it comes to Mad Monday celebrations.
Kane Cornes also criticised various players’ behaviour at this year’s event this year, saying on SEN he “thought that was one of the more embarrassing days at the Geelong Footy Club that I鈥檝e seen in a while”.
鈥淣ow, this isn鈥檛 new. They鈥檝e owned this space for a long, long period of time. But at some point in time with the issues that there has been in and around dress-ups, clubs have just got to say, hey, you know what? It鈥檚 not book week. We鈥檙e not in year five.
鈥淟et鈥檚 just turn up in a shirt and some jeans and have a good day, a few quiet beers, and celebrate a grand final loss where we got smashed in the second half because we don鈥檛 need to dress up and make ourselves look like fools.
Geelong addressed the various controversies in .
“Geelong Football Club sincerely apologises for the offence caused following our end of season gathering on Monday.
“Certain costumes and associated social media posts were inappropriate and a significant error of judgment, and do not reflect our Team of All commitment.”听
The club confirmed immediate changes to its post-season traditions. 鈥淭he Club has decided future post season events will not continue in this current form, and we will take this moment to further educate our people on expectations and Club and community standards.”
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Referencing Brokeback Mountain doesn’t seem particularly homophobic to me. Or am I missing something? In fact, it’s good he’s aware of it and what the story’s about, to be able to reference it humorously. Are we the only ones allowed to mention the movie now? Seems a bit PC!