A section of Adelaide Crows fans repeatedly booed Collingwood defender Isaac Quaynor during a Thursday night match at Adelaide Oval, drawing condemnation from the AFL, the players' union, and a former player turned LGBTQIA+ advocate who says the response from Adelaide's coach did not go far enough.

The booing carries a history. Last season, in round 23 of 2025, Adelaide's Izak Rankine directed a homophobic slur at Quaynor and copped a four-match ban from the AFL Integrity Unit. Quaynor was the target then. He was the target again on Thursday night, and the echo was not lost on anyone watching.

Crows coach Matthew Nicks, asked about the booing post-match, said "it's not ideal the way it played out tonight" and called football "a passionate game" where "sometimes we lose our way." He later clarified: "Looking back on it, our fans are passionate… but personally I'm not a fan of booing." He also pushed back on any framing of Rankine as a victim in the controversy.

Mitch Brown, a former AFL player who last year became the first current or former AFL player to come out as bisexual, went further. Speaking to ABC Melbourne radio on Friday, Brown said he was "really disappointed in the response by Adelaide's coach by not just saying this is completely out of order." He wanted to see players and coaches "stand up and say we don't want to see this as part of our game."

Brown's words carried weight. "When you don't call something out with conviction, silence is deafening," he told the ABC. He invoked the phrase: "The standards we walk by are the standards we accept." Brown called on men to "stand up… use our voices and not fear calling things out," and said the best leaders are "prepared to put their hand up and say, 'We are part of a problem.'" (ABC News)

The criticism did not stop with Brown. Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury spoke publicly about the booing, saying it reflected more on the crowd than on Quaynor. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Adelaide CEO Tim Silvers released a statement on Friday saying the behaviour of some fans "crossed the line" and was "inappropriate and not good enough." AFLPA CEO James Gallagher condemned the targeted booing as "unacceptable," saying it "can cause significant harm" and "signals that the game isn't safe." AFL CEO Andrew Dillon weighed in too: "The targeted booing last night should not have happened and is not what we want to see in our game."

For context, booing in AFL is not new. Crowds have targeted individual players for years, sometimes for on-field reasons, sometimes for off-field ones. What sets this apart is the through-line: Quaynor was the victim of a homophobic slur by a Crows player in 2025, and a segment of the same club's fanbase has now made him a booing target. The connection is why the AFL's top brass responded within hours.

The game itself — the contest between Adelaide and Collingwood — was overshadowed by what happened off the ball. Whether the league's words translate into action at the gates remains the question. Brown's point was simpler: if nobody calls it out, the silence says everything.