BY TIM DOUTRÉ
SUBURBAN Football players could face suspension and deregistration for posting comments on social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, if a new cybersafety policy is adopted by leagues in the West.
The Western Region Football League (WRFL) and Essendon District Football League (EDFL) are looking to adopt stringent rules on social media that will see players suspended from matches for cyberbullying and possibly deregistered for follow up offences.
The Victorian Country Football League led the charge announcing a cybersafety policy earlier this year which imposes tough penalties on players caught attacking individuals via social media.
“Any proven charges will automatically lead to a minimum of a two match suspension,” the policy reads.
“Players charged with these types of offences for a second or subsequent time and where a suspension has been previously imposed will face deregistration.”
WRFL – adapting to change
The WRFL has no cyberbullying policy at present but league CEO Bob Tregear said after being contacted by Star two weeks ago, it was something the league would look into.
“We hadn’t done anything specific because it hadn’t been on our radar at this stage but it is now,” he said.
Tregear had no problem with the penalties, such as deregistration outlined in the VCFL’s policy.
“That is really no different to any other transgression somebody might make,” he said.
“It is just logical that bullying – whether it is cyberbullying or just face to face – it is not a good thing.”
Last week, Tregear confirmed that he discussed the issue of cybersafety at a meeting with AFL Victoria and that the governing body would be looking to implement a policy in the near future.
“Rather than all of us (individual leagues) adopting a separate policy AFL Victoria is going to sift through it (VCFL policy) and give it some thought and either use it or come up with a variation of that we can adopt across all of community football.
There was no question everybody thinks it’s a good idea.”
The VCFL policy also gets tough on those who don’t take the field, with the clubs of “non-playing club members” who are proven to be engaging in cyberbullying, deemed to be “vicariously liable for the conduct of the person and shall pay to the league a penalty to be determined by the league.”
Tregear said while the WRFL had never had an instance of cyberbullying brought before the board, the VCFL policy looked “quite good” and the league would look at adopting something similar.
Star highlighted a handful of Facebook pages to the WRFL. The pages directly attack WRFL clubs but do not vilify individuals. Some of the pages included ‘West Footscray are sh*t’ and ‘Caroline Springs football club are sooks’ which were easily found with a Facebook search.
Caroline Springs players are described as a “bunch of little girls” on the page, which has more than 60 members. Spotswood Football Club is also targeted by one Facebook page named ‘I hate Spotty Dogs’ which carries the tagline: “The worst Dog players. The Worst Dog supporters”.
Tregear was “uncomfortable” with these sites and said he would be looking in to them.
“I am not surprised about what you say about the Facebook pages, ‘I hate spotty’, etc, but even those have never been mentioned to me before.”
Players and officials who take to Twitter and Facebook to attack the league itself may also be in for a rude awakening with Tregear confirming the league’s strict media policy, which outlaws criticising the administration in traditional media forms, would soon apply to online social media.
“We do have a media policy that says you can’t just go out and bag the league,” he said.
“It is not good form and we have a rule that covers that and you can be penalised for it. We will look at updating the policy as well (to include social media).”
Most recently Melbourne Demons players were given suspended fines for venting their frustration with the AFL’s match review panel over Jack Trengove’s suspension on Twitter.
Tregear said it was just another issue that community football leagues had to catch up with.
“We find it difficult to get ahead of these things because they can be costly and time consuming and they deflect your effort from your core business.
“We don’t have the administrative infrastructure that the AFL has got to deal with it.”
Tregear said an AFL Victoria policy could be devised as soon as the “next few weeks”.
The EDFL – hearing whispers
Cyberbullying has reared its ugly head in the EDFL but no one has been punished – yet – that is the word from general manager Marc Turri.
A lack of evidence and unconfirmed allegations have left the league wary of the situation but with no convictions in the bank.
“Nothing concrete has been brought to our attention,” he said.
“We have heard whispers of things that have gone on but every time we have asked for concrete evidence it has never been forthcoming but you know it is only a matter of time.
“That is why I think the VCFL has done a really good thing in terms of creating this (cybersafety) policy.”
The EDFL, like the WRFL, currently has no specific policy to deal with online bullying.
While Turri hadn’t read the VCFL policy “word for word” he was receptive to the idea and the punishments it outlined.
“It is certainly comprehensive and outlines the penalties for those caught.
I think those incidents should not be occurring and anything we can do to steer people in the right direction has to be a good thing.”
Turri said deregistration was a fair penalty should the offence be deemed “extreme.”
“If you are going to do something like this it is important to have some sort of penalty mechanism in place otherwise it won’t be taken seriously.”
Star discovered a Facebook page attacking Craigieburn Football Club and brought it to the EDFL’s attention.
The site titled ‘Cragieburn (sic) football club should pissoff (sic) out of the edfl’ had 193 members as of last week and a description reading ‘they are dirty as each other and they cant (sic) win games”.
Turri labelled the site “irresponsible” and said he would be looking in to it.
“Those sort of things shouldn’t be happening and the people who are doing that are just irresponsible for airing those sort of views.
“To use that as a particular example, they are one of our valued clubs, there is no doubt about that … to shoot off those sort of biased comments it just doesn’t do anyone any favours including the author.”
Turri said any cyberbullying offences reported while the EDFL did not have a specific policy would come under a “misconduct charge”.
He said that while the league would wait for an AFL Victoria policy on cybersafety they also needed to “look after our own backyard”.
“We need to have a look at it ourselves and be pro-active on the matter. But obviously AFL Vic have a few more resources than we do and it would be great if they could devise something as well.”
