{"id":389521,"date":"2024-04-30T23:17:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T23:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389521"},"modified":"2024-05-01T00:03:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T00:03:47","slug":"ashamed-finlayson-remorseful-for-homophobic-slur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389521","title":{"rendered":"'Ashamed' Finlayson remorseful for homophobic slur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Adelaide<\/a> forward Jeremy Finlayson rues the lapse of care and consideration that led him to level a homophobic slur towards an opposition player<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, \ufeffthe AFL<\/a> announced it was investigating a homophobic slur made by Finlayson and directed at an Essendon<\/a> player during the third quarter of the sides' round-four encounter at Gather Round<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The slur was reportedly picked up on the on-field umpires' microphones but Finlayson subsequently self-reported the incident to the club.<\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> Big win for Manly as skipper's judiciary streak continues\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

"Every day I wish I could take it all back," Finlayson told The Age<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"It's hard to talk about even now, and I don't know who I've hurt or how many people. I have family members who are gay and friends who are gay.<\/p>\n

"I've reached out to them all to try to explain I just said something so wrong in the heat of the moment."<\/p>\n

Finlayson \ufeffbecame the first AFL player to be suspended for using a homophobic slur, receiving a three-week ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old\ufeff professed the days following the incident had been "muted", compelling him to reflect on his behaviour and attempt to make amends for the harm he had caused others.<\/p>\n

Finlayson revealed \ufeffhe addressed the club's AFLW coach Lauren Arnell \u2014 who is in a same-sex relationship \u2014 and tried to explain his behaviour.<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

He told The Age he \ufeffpleaded with Arnell to understand that he was not anti-gay and that his comment in no way reflected his views on the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n

Finlayson also implored Port Adelaide football boss Chris Davies to allow him a chance to speak to his teammates.<\/p>\n

"If I didn't, I knew it would haunt me," he said of addressing the playing group.<\/p>\n

"I was so ashamed and I knew it wasn't just about me. I'd dragged them all down a bit. I'd dragged the whole club into this. Every article, every comment, it was about Power or Port."<\/p>\n

Finlayson attempted to explain why he used the offensive and insulting word, claiming he performs at his best when he plays on the edge.<\/p>\n

\"Laidley<\/p>\n

Port had scored a goal late in the third term of the 69-point win. In response, Finlayson directed the slur at the unnamed Essendon player and referenced the player's lack of impact on the game, specifically his possession count.<\/p>\n

He immediately saw the comment had upset the player before saying to another Essendon opponent: "I wish I hadn't said that".<\/p>\n

After the final siren, Finlayson sought out the Essendon player and apologised for his actions.<\/p>\n

"I've reached out to him and I will again," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Nic<\/p>\n

"But I'm only starting to learn about this and there's a lot more education I need to do.<\/p>\n

"I've already learned so much from the education I've done already, and I just wish it hadn't taken what I've done for me to understand this."<\/p>\n

Finlayson also found himself in hot water after responding to his suspension on his wife Kellie Finlayson's podcast<\/a>, in which he said he was annoyed with the severity of his punishment.<\/p>\n

Finlayson has now completed his three-game suspension and is available to lineup \ufefffor Port Adelaide in Thursday night's showdown with Adelaide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Port Adelaide forward Jeremy Finlayson rues the lapse of care and consideration that led him to level a homophobic slur towards an opposition player. Earlier […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389524,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389521\/revisions\/389524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/382822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}