WEST Coast says it is "appalled and bewildered" after a vile online racial attack against young forward Jarrod Cameron.
"Clearly, as a society, we have a lot of work to do to eradicate these assaults on our Indigenous players – as well as other racist attitudes – and we must continue to educate fellow Australians on community expectations," the club said in a statement on Wednesday night.
"These hurtful insults cannot continue and our club will do all within its power to bring this behaviour to an end."
FULL FIXTURE Every round, every game
The AFL and the AFL Players' Association also condemned the attack on social media.
Cameron, the younger brother of Lions star Charlie, put up a screenshot of the abusive message he received on his Instagram story.
"Our players and the general community deserve better. It's just garbage," AFLPA CEO Paul Marsh said on Wednesday.
New year, same disgusting racist behaviour. Wouldn’t it be great if 2020 was a year where we see all AFL players, and people, treated with respect regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation. pic.twitter.com/DAXQoDU5e5
— Paul Marsh (@Marsh_Paul) January 7, 2020
"We've reported it to the AFL and they'll continue to investigate these instances and where possible we'll take action.
2019'S BIGGEST STORIES We count down the top 50 stories of the year 5-1
"We don't want these people in our game. When we've been able to identify them we've been able to do that.
"One of the positives of all this is it is helping educate and more and more people are seeing this for what it is."
The AFLPA has spoken to all the big social platforms over the years to try and innovate ways to protect the players, but protection over anonymity stands at the heart of the issue.
"This is a really complex issue though with how you identify the people that are on the end of these and often you can't," Marsh said.
The AFL's general manager of inclusion and social policy, Tanya Hosch, also called out the abuse.
Racism is never ok. We strongly support our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander AFL and AFLW players and continue to work with social media platforms to address this racial abuse. https://t.co/RtT16U1uLz
— AFL House (@AFL_House) January 8, 2020