The controversy around the Geelong Cats’ Mad Monday celebrations has not yet died down, with comedian Josh Thomas and GWS Giants boss Dave Matthews now weighing in.
ICYMI, Geelong Cats player Bailey Smith was accused of homophobia earlier this week when he shared a picture taken during his Mad Monday celebrations which referenced the movie Brokeback Mountain.
The picture saw Smith and fellow player Patrick Dangerfield embracing while wearing cowboy hats, with Smith mentioning the 2005 gay romance film and writing “this is what losing a [grand final] does to ya” in the caption.
The post was deemed as homophobic by Mitch Brown, the AFL’s only openly queer player, but Thomas has now come to Smith’s defence by urging followers to “leave Bailey alone”.
“[Smith] never said losing the grand final makes you gay,” the actor, best known for the comedy series Please Like Me, wrote in a series of Instagram Stories shared on Thursday.
“That intention was insinuated by other people and ran with as raw fact.”
Thomas went on to say that the label of homophobe is “brutal” and “very serious”, adding that using the term incorrectly “makes it look like queer people are over-sensitive”.
“We’ve got to stop calling people that aren’t homophobic, homophobic. It widens the divide and alienates people. It gets reported so loudly that it makes it look like queer people are oversensitive or anti-fun,” Thomas wrote.
“The post is now being called homophobic in headlines without any context,” he added. In a separate post, Thomas said, “bringing people down is the least empowering way to find comfort in your queerness”.
A few hours after sharing the Insta Story, Thomas posted a screenshot of a DM interaction with Smith in which the pair both said “love you”.
While Smith was defended in some corners, Matthews — who has been the CEO of the GWS Giants since 2011 — accused the AFL of being inconsistent in its handling of sanctions or repercussions in the wake of the Mad Monday controversy.
On Thursday, the AFL’s general manager of football performance Greg Swann said that while the league is “not thrilled with what happened”, it would ultimately leave the decision about sanctions for those involved in the controversy in the hands of individual clubs.
“I think these are club issues. I’m not sure why the AFL [would step in]. We will step in if we have to, but let the clubs deal with it,” Swann said.
Matthews took umbrage with that response during an interview on the Trade Radio podcast, saying it was “inconsistent” given that Giants players copped fines and suspensions from the AFL for skits and costumes at their own Mad Monday celebrations last year.
“I think this is a broader AFL issue in terms of the framework and process by which circumstances or sanctions are worked through … we just need more consistency,” Matthews said.
The Giants CEO added that in light of the controversy, the AFL “need[s] a framework that the fans, the players and the clubs understand”.
In its own response on Thursday, Geelong said it “sincerely apologises for the offence caused” by the Mad Monday posts, describing them as “inappropriate and a significant error of judgement”.
The club said that as a result, end-of-season celebrations “will not continue in this current form”.
It comes after Brown implored Smith to “do better” and said “losing a grand final doesn’t make you gay, but being homophobic definitely makes you a loser”.
Brown came out as bisexual in August amid a broader reckoning of homophobia in the AFL, which only intensified when it enlisted Snoop Dogg as the grand final headliner despite his past homophobic comments.
Lead images: Bailey Smith/Instagram and ABC
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