Danielle Laidley: Fat jokes aimed at Sean Darcy by Fremantle Dockers fans are deplorable and cross the line

As public figures, footballers open themselves up to fair criticism and fans rightly get to have an opinion about our great game and its players — but I have to say recent online commentary about Sean Darcy’s bodyweight is downright deplorable.

Yes, footy is tough, competitive and uncompromising, but the line is crossed when you start making degrading, personal and hurtful comments. Particularly when it is one of their own, from the team they support, I just can’t fathom it.

I’m sure these supporters — let’s call them keyboard cowards — don’t know the full story. They see just the tip of the iceberg and not what goes on in the individual’s life, they just see a footballer, not the person.

Could they be in a bad place mentally? They could even have physical conditions outside of their control bubbling under the surface, we just don’t know.

So why do these faceless, shameless people feel the need to go on the attack? Online bullying can have dire consequences and we all know what these are. Is it the dopamine shot that makes these people feel good? Is the notoriety on social media that boosts their own self-esteem?

While looking at recent articles about Fremantle and images from pre-season training images posted by The West Australian, other media and the club themselves, there have been some horrible comments about ruckman Sean Darcy.

They are hard to comprehend.

An X user called ‘Mr Always Right’ wrote: “The only expert Freo should bring in to help Sean ‘Puffy’ Darcy is Jenny Craig.”

In response to another post that mentioned Darcy was not expected to enter main training until after Christmas as he recovers from knee surgery, the same user wrote: “Sean Puffy Darcy should maybe sit out Christmas lunch too.”

A Fremantle “fan” page, known as Flagmantle, has been targeting the Dockers tall all year.

“Look at his gut, he looks like he missed all those games because he was pregnant ... if you can’t do anything about his stupid six-year contract, at least cancel his UberEats account,” they wrote on Facebook earlier this year.

“Sean Darcy hasn’t even left his couch,” they wrote in relation to off-season holidays just weeks ago.

“Sean Darcy on the bench during Freo games ... standard,” they wrote when he was spotted in the crowd supporting the Dockers women’s side in the derby.

In another post in September, they superimposed him into an image of a shirtless, overweight man eating a plate of fried chicken and chips on the couch.

“FIFO footballer Sean Darcy will most likely still be on R&R this weekend and miss yet another game so he can get to Bunnings on snag day,” Flagmantle wrote in the season.

Amid all this, Dockers footy manager Joe Briety has been very transparent about Darcy’s progress around his return from injury, stating he is on track with a new program they have implemented, with a bio-mechanist also assisting him.

When I was coaching North Melbourne, I had a player whose work rate and preparation was first class, but her certainly did not look like Thor. Our game is played by all shapes and sizes, that’s the beauty of Australian rules football.

Does Darcy need to change his body shape? Only he and the club have the full picture to make that determination. For those cowards, there is also a much more graceful way of having your opinion.

This is one of my all-time favourite quotes: “It’s not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, who spends himself in a worthy cause.

Who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.”

To those who make these types of comments — just for one second, think about how you would react if it was said to one of your children, family members or friends in the workplace or school, how would you feel and how would you react?