Mum 'felt unsafe' at Tigers final, lodges complaint with AFL
A Geelong fan who left the game against Richmond with her daughter prematurely because she "felt unsafe," has lodged an official complaint with the AFL.
The Cats supporter spoke of her ordeal on Melbourne radio, describing the scenes she endured at the MCG on Friday night as akin to "mob atmosphere."
"I go to the football with my daughter quite a lot and we’re quite fair," the woman told 3AW.
"We go and watch the game and support good play. We arrived and the atmosphere was just terrible. As people know, there were very few Geelong supporters there, which wasn't a problem.
"But from the moment we arrived - and I'm not immune to swearing, you hear it all the time - but the language was terrible.
"The sportsmanship, the booing, just the atmosphere - the mob atmosphere - it was just terrible.
"We felt unsafe. We didn't feel like we could support our team. There was booing, there were comments being made and we felt very unsafe.
"I wouldn't have wanted to be there with a young child.”
The disgruntled fan denied that her disillusionment amounted to sour grapes, conceding that the Tigers were rightful winners.
However, she felt the situation warranted an official complaint to the AFL, as well as the Richmond Football Club, Geelong Football Club and Melbourne Cricket Club.
"The best team won on the night definitely. It wasn’t about the game, it was the supporters," she said.
"We left before halftime and we never leave games early, we stay to the end whether we're winning or losing."
"Half of the reason we left early is because we didn't want to be on the train - win or lose - with Richmond supporters."
The woman's account was backed up by another caller on the radio station who claimed he'd never heard so many expletives at a football game before - particularly from female Tigers fans.
More than 95,000 crammed into the MCG to watch Richmond defeat Geelong by 51 points, with Cats star Patrick Dangerfield boldly declaring the defeat won't change the Cats' finals equation.
"The predicament for us doesn't really change. We need to win three games," Dangerfield said from the Geelong rooms at the MCG.
The Cats used up their double chance by falling away drastically in the final term after a closely-fought first three quarters.
