{"id":818875,"date":"2026-07-23T14:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818875\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:33:18","slug":"afl-2026-why-did-crows-fans-boo-isaac-quaynor-adelaide-def-collingwood-magpies-craig-mcrae-reaction-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818875\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Why did Crows fans boo Isaac Quaynor, Adelaide def Collingwood Magpies, Craig McRae reaction, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood coach Craig McRae has hit out at Adelaide fans repeatedly booing Isaac Quaynor during the Magpies\u2019 34-point win on Thursday night<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It comes after Quaynor was the Magpies player on the receiving end of Izak Rankine\u2019s homophobic slur in the Round 23 Adelaide-Collingwood match last year. <\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In his press conference on Wednesday, Crows coach Matthew Nicks asked for fans to \u201cbe respectful\u201d. Instead, the parochial home crowd targeted the Pies defender. <\/p>\n

\u201cQuaynor (is being) booed every time he gets the football,\u201d Fox Footy caller Mark Howard noted in the first quarter on Thursday night as Quaynor often found the footy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Adelaide Football Club asked the supporters not to do it after the last qualifying final. Unfortunately, they\u2019re continuing with that act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Post-match, speaking to Fox Footy\u2019s Mark Howard and Jack Riewoldt, McRae found it hard to summon the words to express his obvious disappointment with what played out. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not sure how the world works when someone\u2019s been vilified (to then be booed),\u201d McRae said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow does that become \u2026 I\u2019m on the bench early (in the game) and I started to really \u2026 I love to protect our boys. I don\u2019t know what that looks like, but it was a really strange one for me. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he must\u2019ve had the ball a lot early, because he got booed a lot. Credit to him, we love our own, we\u2019ll get around him, support him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not sure how that works, in the world we live in. It\u2019s a strange one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nicks, meanwhile, in his post-game press conference, wasn\u2019t anywhere near as strong when probed about the fans\u2019 behaviour. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at that – I mentioned it during the week, about why we play footy, why people come to the footy; it\u2019s about entertainment, it\u2019s about enjoyment, passion,\u201d Nicks said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe game is a passionate game, and sometimes we lose our way in that a little. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd with the backdrop, and I guess the background leading into this game, it\u2019s not ideal the way it played out tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

After last year\u2019s qualifying final, where the booing began, Nicks did not comment on the behaviour which saw him criticised by many observers.<\/p>\n

Craig McRae speaks out against the booing Isaac Quaynor received on Thursday night.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n

Howard, after the McRae interview, was also left perplexed. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been the victim of a homophobic slur, and he\u2019s been booed by the crowd,\u201d Howard said on Thursday Night Footy on Fox. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure the Adelaide Football Club will make a strong statement about it, but there\u2019s been a history in our game in the past. As the coach said, it\u2019s hard to fathom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Triple Richmond premiership star Jack Riewoldt added: \u201cAdelaide came out pre-game and said that they didn\u2019t want to see this, but sometimes the more you tell people not to do stuff, they then do the opposite. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was really disappointing. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been a huge challenge for (Quaynor) to get on the plane and come back to this ground. Obviously, he\u2019d played in a final here last year as well, but he\u2019s coming back to a place where that incident did happen. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he handled himself excellently. I thought Craig handled himself really well then, too, because he is super protective. <\/p>\n

\u201cCoaches treat their players like sons in the men\u2019s game \u2026 it would be so frustrating. It\u2019s so hurtful for Isaac and also Craig.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tex boots Goal No. 700 | 01:42<\/p>\n

The booing persisted but got quieter as Collingwood dominated Adelaide, with the Herald Sun\u2019s Jon Ralph earlier addressing the situation at half-time. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe booing of Isaac Quaynor is sheer lunacy, given that he of course was the innocent victim of the homophobic slur last year in Round 23,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not what he (Izak Rankine) would want, and it\u2019s certainly not what Matthew Nicks asked for as recently as yesterday, when he said \u2018let\u2019s have some respect for the Collingwood players\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the booing of last year\u2019s qualifying final, Craig McRae said how disappointed he was by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Carlton coach Michael Voss added: \u201cWhy you\u2019d even try and go down that path I\u2019m not sure; I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re trying to achieve. Just move on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood coach Craig McRae has hit out at Adelaide fans repeatedly booing Isaac Quaynor during the Magpies\u2019 34-point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-818875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}