Pressure to change AFL Father-Son rule
The AFL is resisting pressure to change the father-son rule which some say discriminates against adopted children.
The rule states biological sons are afforded passage to a club where a father played a hundred games or more. Adopted sons, however, aren’t looked after by the football family in the same way.
Some say it’s hard to believe in this day and age.
Neil Mitchell from 3AW said this morning: “It’s bizarre, isn’t it. The AFL’s got a rule for everything else. They should fix this one pretty quickly.”
Vanish, an organisation that provides services to adopted people, urges the AFL to review the rule.
Vanish chairperson Leigh Hubbard says: “It’s probably discriminatory that if you are a genuinely adopted person, adopted at a young age into a family then they are your legal family, they are your guardians.
“I don’t think they should view that any differently to a biological father son relationship.”
Carlton player Marc Murphy could have gone to Brisbane under the father-son rule but would want his boy to be true blue no matter what his upbringing.
He said: “If I adopted a son and he was pretty good it would be good to see him playing around in the navy blue.”
So far, the AFL have refused to change, instead saying they will treat it on a case-by-case basis.
AFL Operations Manager says: “I’m not aware of any adopted sons in that situation but if there were as a hypothetical, I’m sure we would have a look at it.”
