Former Gold Coast Suns player set to launch bombshell case
AN EX-footballer is taking on the AFL for sexual harassment and “horrific” racial vilification he alleges occurred during his career.
news.com.auMAY 9, 20183:25PM
Joel Wilkinson (right) with former teammates Tom Nicholls and Maverick Weller.Source:News Limited
FORMER Gold Coast Suns player Joel Wilkinson is preparing to sue the AFL over alleged racial vilification and sexual harassment during his playing career. Foundation Suns defender Wilkinson, who was delisted after playing 26 games in three seasons, last featured in the AFL in 2013.
Brisbane-based Shine Lawyers said the Sydney-born 26-year-old, of Nigerian descent, said legal action will be filed to the Human Rights Commission after talks with the AFL broke down.
The case is to allege Wilkinson was subjected to discrimination by AFL staff, Suns club officials and teammates, as well as opponents and spectators. His lawyers also claim he bore the brunt of “racially motivated sexual harassment in the changerooms by other players on numerous occasions”. Shine’s employment law expert, Will Barsby, said the league failed in its duty of care and allowed the “racial abuse, sexual taunting in the locker room, bullying and mistreatment” to continue, despite repeated requests for help. Mr Barsby said the AFL failed to protect Wilkinson from vilification beginning with his first game, when he debuted at 19 in 2011.
“In Australia playing AFL is a full-time job for many young people and like any job there are laws to protect your rights in the workplace,” he said. “The AFL isn’t exempt from these laws just because it is a national pastime. Sport is a business, players are employees.
“(The AFL) have let our client down and allowed the abuse to continue, it’s cut short his career and he’s been punished for speaking out being shunned by clubs for his stance against racism.” Wilkinson’s case also alleges he wasn’t offered further employment with the AFL or Suns due to his outspoken ways targeting racism.
An AFL spokesman said the league would “respond through the legal process”.
ABUSED IN HIS VERY FIRST GAME
Justin Sherman and Joel Wilkinson shake hands after a game in 2011. Pic: Darren England.Source:News Limited
Wilkinson, who has a Nigerian father, featured in an AFL Media-produced video titled
Making A Stand in 2014 where he revealed the devastating impact racism had on his career.
He was racially vilified in his very first game by Western Bulldogs player Justin Sherman.
“My first game, and I’m out there playing and I heard the remark from a player, an opposition player, ‘You black c***,’” he recalled in the video. “I remember just thinking, ‘How do I go about this?’
“I was at the point where I actually was prepared to fight him, just to put the spotlight on the issue and make it a big issue.
“I remember being in the rooms with the captains and the coach. They said to me, ‘Joel, what do you want to do?’
“I remember saying that I want something to happen, because I could actually feel him thinking he was superior to me, and he felt like I was worthless.
“I actually felt like he was trying to make me feel like I was a little kid, a little black kid, a little piece of dirt. And he was just a superior being.”
Wilkinson was drafted as a Queensland zone election by the Suns in 2010 after excelling in athletics as a youth.
He was delisted at the end of the 2013 season and began playing for the Northern Blues in the VFL.
But he abruptly announced the end of his football career in 2015 and decided to chase an NFL dream.
He was signed by the Arizona Cardinals to play cornerback but was cut without playing a game. He returned to Australia and talked about trying to revive his AFL career but now at age 26 hasn’t been offered another opportunity.
Joel Wilkinson after signing with the Arizona Cardinals.Source:Supplied
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