Leading AFL journalist Caroline Wilson says Luke Parker’s taunting of Dylan Shiel was “the most arrogant” and “un-Swans like” moment she’s seen from a Sydney player.
Parker made headlines for mocking Shiel’s hardness around the ball in an obvious taunt that was caught on camera after kicking a goal in the Swans’ 58-point victory on Saturday.
It was a moment that left Essendon great Matthew Lloyd wishing Shiel or one of his teammates “ploughed straight through Parker” for being “disrespected in a way you never wanted to be treated as a footballer”.
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But Wilson saw that moment from a different view, saying Parker’s actions were a terrible look for the Swans.
“I heard Phil Davis I think in the commentary say, ‘Luke Parker has got that in him, he’s got that niggly side,’ but I have never seen that in Luke Parker,” she said on The Age’s Real Footy podcast.
“I understand what Matthew’s saying that they should’ve supported their teammate. But what’s going on with Luke Parker? I thought that was the most arrogant, un-Swans like, nasty behaviour that will come back and bite him.
“I really didn’t like that at all.
“And he kept doing it, he did it about four or five times. That’s not the Bloods’ culture. I bet you John Longmire absolutely flinched when he saw that. I didn’t like it at all.
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“You don’t want to see that type of stuff creeping into a game from your captain.
“What he did was kick a man when he was down in the most arrogant, humiliating way. That’s what I thought.”
Wilson added it was “good theatre” to the game, but still a bad look for the club.
“Sydney’s my second team, I just admire so much with what they’ve done over three decades and what a great club they’ve become,” she said.
“But every time he (Parker) did it I thought ‘what are you doing, you’re just being juvenile, nasty and a bit of a bully’… It’s all good theatre but that was my reaction to it.”
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