Then Roo pulled me aside at the airport lounge and told me the same, but with double the swear words. ‘Fucken lie doggo until the club works with you on a statement,’ he growls. ‘Do not make this fucken worse. You’ve let the whole fucken club down.’
By the time we land in Perth, my socials are lit up like a Christmas tree. I got notifications streaming out my arse. Mostly people slamming the living snot out of me for being a homophobe. A smaller chunk of people are praising me for not being afraid to speak my mind; instead, they slam the AFL for being deviants and ‘groomers’ for supporting Pride. Some footy journos DM me asking for comment, a chance to ‘tell my side of the story’, which I ignore.
I have seven missed calls from Wookie. While I’m waiting with Tank and Kingy at the baggage carousel, he calls an eighth time, and I answer.
Wookie blasts me even harder than Roo did.
‘This’ll blow over, won’t it?’ I ask when he eventually takes a breath.
Wookie laughs. ‘Blow over? You’re kidding? The alphabet people are batshit insane and out for blood whenever someone like you says something like this. You’re gonna have to do the full humiliation ritual. Apology video, mandatory diversity training, shitty photo op. We have a contract renegotiation for you in six months, and you just made your value plummet. Do not say a single thing on social media. Donotmake this worse.’
When Wookie hangs up, Tank and Kingy clap me on the back. Everyone’s phones are pinging now we’re off flight mode, and the news has raced through the playing group.
‘Proud of you, bro,’ Tank says. ‘You stuck to your guns. You fired back. Legend.’
That day is a conflicting mess of people both yelling at me and praising me.
Dad calls and tells me he’s glad I stood up to the AFL’s woke agenda, then says to keep my head down from now on cos it’s not worth losing my career over. ‘Play the game, son.’
Mum calls and tells me to take care of myself and not let the trolls get to me.
Doug messages me.Told you not to kick the hornet’s nest, fuckwit!
Even Richelle pops up.Hey, I know u didn’t really mean to be offensive babes, but I warned u: u can’t really say stuff like this anymore. Get the club to do an apology for u, then lie low for a bit. I know some PR crisis management people in Melbs if u want their deets. Hope ur holding up ok, DM me if u need xx
Most people online hate me, but lots are rushing to my defence. It’s the same tug-of-war you see in the media every day. I just happen to be today’s rope.
The weirdest thing is the temporary relief I feel. People are so convinced I’m homophobic, nobody suspects I’m into guys.
But I have this sense the relief won’t last. I keep deleting my DMs in bulk, but I’m still scanning them first, waiting for the anonymous account to message me again.
I’m sure he will, and he’s the only one who could make this worse.
I get yanked out of training on Tuesday to meet with the club CEO, Roo, Wookie and Tessa.
The club already released a swift, cautiously worded statement soon after my interview, reaffirming its commitment to inclusion, diversity and the Pride Round. The lack of an apology from me led to that statement being torn to shreds in the media.
Roo tells me the AFL has delegated this matter to the club to sort out, rather than suggesting any league-level fines or suspensions should apply. Phew.
‘Right decision,’ Wookie booms. ‘The AFL doesn’t need to get involved. Hammer was expressing a personal opinion, off-field, without any slurs or hate. Not a crime or a sanctionable offence. In my playing days, we had a term for that: free speech.’
‘My view is Hammer should make a public apology, and show his contrition by playing in the Pride Game and wearing the Pride Guernsey,’ Roo says. ‘However, the club board has taken a different stance.’
‘We feel the optics of having Kade play in the Pride Round will cause another wave of hurt to the LGBTQIA+ community, given his stance,’ the club CEO explains to me and Wookie. ‘We have made the decision to avoid the issue flaring up further. Kade will be managed out of the team for next week’s Pride Game.’
The fuck.
‘You what?’ Wookie roars. ‘Wrongfucking decision! Have you forgotten you’re a pro football team? That you’re playing in a competitive league? For fuckingpoints? You can’t voluntarilywipe your full-forward out of selection for thisrubbish! Has all common sense left this sport?’
‘Kade’s comments, made while representing the club in the media, have caused harm to the club’s reputation at a delicate time when we were relaunching our diversity and inclusion campaign,’ the CEO says. ‘It’s sheer luck we don’t have a game this weekend because of our bye from that opening round debacle, so Kade will thankfully be kept out of the spotlight. He only has to sit out one game next week, and he should count himself lucky that it’s only one game. Perhaps, as a key forward, Kade thought his value to the team meant he was above the law. This might serve as a good reminder he isn’t.’
Roo’s arms are folded over his polo shirt. I can tell he’s pissed to lose a key player for a game, but his hands are tied. I feel genuinely bad now. I’m letting the team down. I won’t be able to help win against Sydney. I’ve been in trouble before, but never anything like this, where the club itself seems to hate me.
Pretty shit that trying to protect my career ended up with me torching it.
‘Even with the bye, and the susp—er – being managed next week, you’ll still need to supply a public apology,’ Tessa says, holding up her phone. ‘We can record it now.’
‘My client will need time to prepare a statement,’ Wookie intervenes.
