The AFL is looking into an incident in which West Coast youngster Harvey Johnston was grabbed by a Collingwood fan from behind the fence at Marvel Stadium.
Johnston contested a mark with Josh Daicos near the boundary line before the ball spilled in front of them and went out of bounds early in the last quarter of their clash on Sunday.
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The Eagles draftee followed the ball out of bounds and grabbed it before it hit the fence.
When he got to the fence, he was grabbed by the Collingwood fan, who had two hands on his head.
The fan then grabbed the ball out of Johnstone’s hands and handballed it back to the boundary umpire.
His contact with Johnstone was not aggressive or harmful, and the player took it in good spirits.
Johnston had a smile on his face and made no issue of it.
But there is a comparable precedent here, which didn’t go down quite as smoothly.
Last year a member of the crowd at Richmond’s Round 21 clash with the Western Bulldogs was banned from attending all AFL and AFLW matches for over a year for tapping Tigers winger Marlion Pickett on the shoulder and appearing to say something to him.
Pickett immediately reacted in what looked like anger, knocking the fan’s drink out of his hand in retaliation.
Speaking on that incident at the time, Channel 7 commentator Abbey Holmes said it was totally unacceptable.
“You don’t like to see that. Crowd in attendance can never touch players in that way,” she said last year.
“You don’t see that very often in AFL. That is absolutely not on. Security was straight there on the scene.
“Hopefully Marlion is okay.”
West Coast have been contacted for comment regarding Johnstone’s incident.
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