Collingwood need to address Lumumba situation: Robinson

The AFL is likely to be called in to address accusations of racial vilification towards ex-Collingwood defender Heritier Lumumba after he launched a scathing attack on his former club, according to AFL journalist Mark Robinson. 

On Tuesday, Lumumba took to social media to outline his feelings during his time at the club mainly pointing out the racist jokes he heard.

He even pointed out that coach Nathan Buckley ostracised him when he spoke out against president Eddie McGuire after he made a joke about Adam Goodes and the play King Kong in 2013. 

Speaking on Fox Footy's AFL360, co-host Mark Robinson, said that this is an issue that the club should not take lightly. 

“Let’s be honest, it came after Eddie McGuire made jokes about Adam Goodes and King Kong. Heritier took offence, Eddie came on the show, he expressed himself. We’re now in 2020, seven years later,” he said. 

“It’s a bit of a mess, but I think it’s real, and I think the Collingwood Football Club will have to address it.

“They can’t just say ‘sorry, we’re not answering that, we’ve got a season to be played’. I think the president and the coach will at some stage have to address what happened.”

His co-host Gerard Whateley indicated that the two sides to this sensitive topic were made public in the 2017 documentary Fair Game.

“They’ve never been able to find any sort of accord. This has been played out in a documentary three years ago, and the disputed recollections which followed out of that. But they’ve never been able to reach an accord.

“I don’t know whether there’s accord to be reached, but it remains a live issue for Heritier and he revisited it today, and there are two parties to it.”

Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph says that he expects the AFL to investigate these claims. 

“So surely it’s beholden upon the AFL to investigate them, and if it is that he’s owed an apology by Collingwood, I’m sure Nathan Buckley and Eddie McGuire would want to do that," he said on AFL Tonight. 

“It’s not just about retweeting Black Lives Matter messages, it’s about us in the AFL actually getting to the bottom of these claims. And if he is owed an apology, well let’s do that, for the good of the game.”