Father Of Banned Port Adelaide ‘Banana-Thrower’ Says Media Is Playing “The Race Card”

The Port Adelaide fan who hurled a banana from the stands at Indigenous Adelaide Crows player Eddie Betts has been banned indefinitely from her team’s matches.

It also earned her this designation from SA Premier Jay Weatherill: “Idiot”.

According to the ABC, the 27-year-old woman (who has not yet been named) has since agreed to take part in a cultural awareness program run by Port Adelaide Football Club, where she will hopefully reckon with the implications of her actions.

Port’s member services general manger Matthew Richardson said the team had spoken to the woman and she “quite clearly recognises that she’s made a terrible mistake”.

Adelaide Football Club chief executive officer Andrew Fagan has spoken on behalf of Betts, saying the footy star was “resilient” and looking “to move on from the incident quickly”.

And for a brief, shining moment, it seemed as if a truly disgusting and baffling moment in AFL fandom might have resulted in sincere apologies, increased cultural awareness and progress.

But then, the woman’s dad chimed in to the debate.

On Adelaide talkback radio this morning, a man claiming to be the woman’s father – he went only by Don – said that the media was “playing the race card” and “demonising” his daughter.

“I am just absolutely shocked,” he added.

“I’m just beside myself. Because it’s just so uncharacteristic. This kid is a beautiful kid. She’s very similar to her mother — unassuming, honest. This was so uncharacteristic."

The hosts weren't having it, however, and rejected Don's argument that his daughter was, in any way, a victim. When the racial connotations of the banana were raised, Don started to get on the defensive.

“You don’t know what kind of person [she is]. She threw a banana in what, to me, was more in frustration.”

Don added that he has not yet spoken to his daughter, “because I can’t get hold of her.”

“She has been ripped apart by this.”

The Advertiser previously reported that the woman went into hiding after deactivating her social media accounts over the weekend.

Photo: Facebook.