Kochie called out over "disgusting" remarks
<p>Port Adelaide president David Koch has come under fire over remarks he made while discussing Jeremy Finlayson's homophobic slur towards another player. </p>
<p>Finlayson is under AFL investigation after he admitted to aiming a homophobic slur at an Essendon player on Friday’s game at Adelaide Oval.</p>
<p>The player Finlayson directed the comment towards is not yet known, but on Saturday night, Port Adelaide confirmed that a “contrite Finlayson made the club aware during the three-quarter time break” of the incident “and apologised to the victim on the field after the final siren last night”. </p>
<p>On Sunday morning, Koch appeared on <em>ABC’s Offsiders</em> to discuss the incident with host Kelli Underwood, veteran journalist Caroline Wilson and AFL footy boss Laura Kane. </p>
<p>“There’s no excuse for it. Jeremy was incredibly remorseful, actually told the coaches at three-quarter time that it was inexcusable, went and apologised to the player after the game,” Koch said. </p>
<p>“That’s no excuse whatsoever. It’s in the heat of the battle, should not have done it and we’ll wait for the AFL to go through its process.”</p>
<p>When discussing what sort of punishment the league could hand down to Finlayson, footy boss Kane questioned whether it may be similar to Taylor Walker's six-week ban after he used a racial slur. </p>
<p>But Kochie wasn't on board with linking the two incidents, and said that the the league had set a precedent with the ruling it handed down to North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson.</p>
<p>“Not ruling it out (an internal investigation), but, umm, you know, if you look at comparisons and benchmarks that have been set,” Koch said.</p>
<p>“With a 55-year-old coach premeditated, target the player, walk up to them is very different to a player in the heat of battle when there was a lot of niggle in the game, the pressure again - absolutely no excuse, not condoning it whatever, and should not be part of the game, but if you’re going to look at a comparison, that would be the benchmark there.”</p>
<p><em style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">ABC’s Offsiders</em><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> host </span>Underwood pressed further and asked him: <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">“If </span><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">I put it to you, it’s in the same category as Taylor Walker’s racial slur, what would your response to that be?”</span></p>
<p>Koch responded: “I don’t think that’s realistic. I think the benchmark has been set in terms of...”</p>
<p>Wilson interjected: “With Alistair Clarkson which I thought was too light." </p>
<p>But Koch insisted: “OK. But the benchmark has been set.”</p>
<p>The comments from the former Sunrise presenter was slammed on social media. </p>
<p>“This is pretty disgusting from Koch," wrote Columnist Greg Jericho. </p>
<p>“Yeah nah @kochie_online. A slur is a slur is a slur. You say you don’t condone a player using a homophobic slur on the field and that there’s no excuse but in the same sentence practically excuse it by saying it occurred ‘in the heat of battle’ and a ‘niggle’. So disappointing," another user wrote. </p>
<p>“Terrible take from Koch. We are benchmarking abuse now. Not making excuses but … homophobia and racism have no place in the game," a third added. </p>
<p>“@kochie_online as a leader of our football club this statement is beyond disappointing. A slur against a marginalised group is exactly the same the nature of it is irrelevant. You need to do better!” a fourth commented. </p>
<p><em>Images: Getty/ ABC</em></p>
