- Leniu claimed he did not know his statement was racist
- Has promised to educate himself about what racism is
- Was unaware of one of the greatest moments of racism in Australian sport
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Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu will have a long time to educate himself about racism after claiming he didn’t know his ‘monkey’ comment was racist and has made the shocking admission he doesn’t know who Adam Goodes is .
Leniu was banned for eight weeks on Monday night after telling the Brisbane native star to ‘f*** up you monkey’ after hearing Mam say his name in their opening round clash in Las Vegas.
The suspension means Leniu will return in round 10 against the Warriors on May 12, a week after the rest of the Roosters face the Broncos in a return match in Brisbane.
“There is no place for racism in this game,” he said. ‘I’m glad he brought this up. I had no racial intent towards Ezra and the original community. I love them and their culture. I don’t think there would be a game without those people.’
Leniu mistakenly believed that racial comments were acceptable between people with brown skin, regardless of their heritage
Mam was devastated by the comment from Leniu and declined the opportunity to meet him face to face for an apology
When asked under cross-examination if Leniu knew of incidents such as those involving Adam Goodes at the Sydney Swans or other racial slurs involving monkeys or apes, Leniu made a surprising claim.
He said he was unaware of such incidents and had never heard of Adam Goodes, despite the Indigenous footballer’s racism battle being arguably the biggest story in Australian sport when it peaked in 2013.
Goodes was a two-time premiership and two-time Brownlow medalist with the Swans, but he was hit with racial abuse, boos and derogatory remarks from fans during his career, which ultimately led to his premature retirement.
Most notably, Goode’s goal in the 2013 indigenous round clash between the Swans and Collingwood was when a 13-year-old girl racially abused Goodes by calling him a monkey.
Goodes requested security to remove the girl from the SCG. Subsequently, he was subjected to sustained boos from opposition fans, a factor that contributed to his resignation in 2015.
The AFL later acknowledged its lack of support for Goodes and expressed regret that they did not intervene to stop the booing.
Gyles responded to Lenius’ claim by saying that “most people who have been in Australia for 15 years would know that calling someone a monkey would normally be racism”.
Goodes was famously racially abused many times in his career, but Leniu had not heard of the AFL and the Sydney Swans legend despite the huge media coverage of the story
Today, Goodes is active in the Indigenous community in Sydney and has spent time working with troubled Indigenous youth, including those in youth detention
After pleading guilty, Lenius’ legal team pushed for a lighter four-game ban for the former Penrith premiership winner as the prop claimed he was unaware of the racial connotations of the term.
Included in his argument was the claim that he believed he was ‘a brown man saying something to another brown man’ and that casual slurs are regularly used between colored players in NRL teams.
“A lot of people in my circle and my skin tone, our slang and the way we talk to each other have all these words,” Leniu told the panel during the 90-minute hearing.
‘Black c*** and all those types of words are being used. They are so common in our language that we speak to each other every single day.
“(We say) Blacky, we always have a competition about who’s the darkest on the team, Monkey and all that kind of stuff.”
It was in that context that Leniu claimed he thought his comment to Mam was just ‘teasing’, before being approached the next morning by a native woman to explain why the term is so offensive.
Lenius’ admission could potentially shed light on a wider problem throughout the game.