The coach of the Carlton AFL football team received a death threat. The Carlton Blues have not been performing up to expectations in season 2025 and there is lots of noise around the future of the head coach and whether he has one at Carlton. Most footy fans hearing about this death threat are appalled but assume it is from a disgruntled Blues supporter. Upon finding out that it was from a Collingwood supporter, yes, a few eyes roll back and heads shake. The Collingwood Magpies are on top of the ladder and multiple games clear of second place. A normal supporter in this position would be too busy gloating to bother with such god awful behaviour. The dangers of tribalism, when carried too far, are a retrograde step in the wrong direction.
The Dangerous Dance Of Tribalism In Sport
Sporting clubs trade on the tribalism of their supporters. It is the life blood of it that makes the whole thing work. I know, personally, the passion one can feel barracking for your team in a contest and how that can get you going. It makes watching a sporting contest a completely engrossing experience. The difference between spectating at a game involving your own team and one involving neutral sides is like chalk and cheese. Nothing compares, as the song says. Obviously, you can take things too far and this is the danger of tribalism. We see the negatives take over during times of war, when the passions of tribalism tip over into hatred and vileness. Lies and misrepresentations are made up about those on the other side. Many innocent people are made out to be monsters.
Footy Tribalism Can Be Taken Too Far
The dangers of tribalism can take immature or mentally unwell folk into dark spaces. Making death threats toward an opposition coach is an example of this. Football is a game, not anything more, when you get a grip on things. Our tribal affiliations with a club are about having fun and not about spiteful shit directed at anyone else. The Collingwood supporter has been banned from the MCG for 5 years and from AFL games for the same period. Collingwood needs to step up and make appropriate condemnation of this appalling behaviour as well. Michael Voss and his family do not deserve such awful spite directed their way. We could all do with the reminder that footy is just a game.
“A Collingwood member who directed a threatening message at Carlton coach Michael Voss has received a five-year ban from all AFL and AFLW matches and the MCG.
The man’s threatening text message was left on the MCG’s anti-social hotline service during the Blues’ loss to Collingwood last Friday night and referenced a “brutal end to his life”.
It was passed on to the AFL integrity unit and then the Blues and while not treated as a credible threat was enough for the MCG security team to pass it on.”
“Do you want to know why the AFL media always gets it wrong? Essentially, it is because they invariably focus on the wrong things. All the ‘so-called’ footy experts are, in the main, not coaches but ex-players and TV announcers. Yes, they do know a lot about AFL via their first hand experiences but not necessarily the secret sauce that delivers consistently winning performances. If they did they would be earning millions as head coaches. In the media they are paid to pontificate. Paid to fill the air time with the hot air of their opinions.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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