Former Brisbane Lions player Mitch Robinson has responded after receiving backlash from a since-deleted social media post in which he claimed he was “turned away” on entry to the changerooms after Saturday night’s elimination final win over Carlton.
In the original post, a furious Robinson declared he would “never go to a Lions game again” because of the way he claimed he was denied the chance to celebrate with his old teammates.
“Football is a fake family just remember that,” he said in the since-deleted post.
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Brisbane later clarified that — despite Robinson trying to organise access to the rooms at the last minute, a process that normally takes place days before a game — they did still try to welcome the 2015 best-and-fairest winner into the rooms after the game.
But with strictly limited availability the Lions simply didn’t have enough to accommodate Robinson’s whole group, which included his partner and some of her family members, at the last minute.
Disgruntled that he couldn’t get everyone into the inner sanctum, Robinson left and vented his frustration on social media at 11.09pm.
The post was deleted the next morning.
Now he has responded on his YouTube channel, after receiving criticism from fans online, and acknowledged Brisbane’s clarification of the incident was more accurate than his initial retelling.
“Alright let’s address the elephant in the room,” Robinson said in a video posted on Sunday night.
“Now, if you know me, you’ll know if I’m passionate about something, I will say my mind.
“So, the first thing that everyone’s asking me is: why did I take down the post?
“Well, after sitting on it for about an hour, reading through some of the comments and they were pretty negative towards the club and, to be honest, it’s not the whole club that’s the problem.
“And especially after being sent some articles and stuff from journos not doing their job and doing any research, and people assuming (that) by ‘family’, I meant my kids — no, I meant partner and her sister and brother. I see them as family, that’s why I wrote family members, not just friends.”
7NEWS understands Robinson was speaking to a contact at the club during the game about getting into the rooms, and that employee did their best to facilitate the former player’s request on late notice.
He has since spoken to the club to clear the air.
“To be honest, I did speak directly to the club about getting wristbands after the game to go down and see the boys celebrate a win or a loss, take my family down there and spend some time with the boys,” he said in his video.
“But benefit of the doubt, there was some miscommunication around that and we addressed that this morning when I spoke to someone from the club.”
Beyond the mistake he has now acknowledged, Robinson also said he sent the post while still frustrated with security guards who he claimed were “absolutely rude”.
“(I) simply asked to go down, can I please get one of the (club) representatives so I can get one of the wrist bands and come back up and then take the family down,” he said.
“And if any of the Lions supporters were there, they would have seen how bad they (the security guards) were acting.”
But he said the silver lining to the whole fiasco came in the aftermath, when fellow AFL alumni reached out.
“There was some positives to come out of the post because I’ve been helped by a few past players, not just from the Brisbane Lions, that have felt like they’ve just been neglected after they finished their career,” Robinson said.
“We develop this culture and we have a family motto that we all bought into, and that’s the one that resonated with me the most, so you just feel like a bit of a number and you don’t really matter to the club when you give them so much (only for this to happen).
“So, no, it’s not about me feeling entitled or deserving that I want to go down there, but it’s the feeling that I’m so passionate about that club and I love those boys and I’m still really good friends with a lot of them today.”
In the original post, Robinson spoke about the lasting effects from football that he still lives with today.
“Imagine playing and bleeding for a club for eight years, copping copious amounts of head knocks and staples in my face (long-term effects),” he said before deleting it.
It’s for that reason that he was so angry with how he claimed he was treated.
“In the post, when I did mention that I’ve had a lot of long-term effects from football — yes, I did get a brain scan, (and) I had seven white matter spots,” Robinson explained in the video.
“During my career, obviously I’ve had a lot of concussions. And I don’t blame anyone, I know exactly what I was getting myself into when I signed up to play footy, but that is the reason why I haven’t been playing much footy this year and I’m not continuing boxing.
“It’s sad, but that’s the way it is. That’s what I mean by (saying) you’re giving so much to the club and the sport that you play, it’s the long-term effects from getting these head knocks.”
Despite conceding that the whole thing was a misunderstanding, Robinson doubled down on saying he won’t be seen at a Brisbane game ever again.
“It is what it is. It could have been handled a lot better. But I am super happy the boys got a massive win and they are onto the next one. I do hope they go well deep into September,” he said.
“But I stand by the last part of that post: I don’t think I’ll be going to another game.”
