A pensive Eddie Betts on the team bus. (Inset): An emotional reunion with his family in Queensland. Pictures: AMAZON PRIME
He is one of the most beloved footballers in the AFL, who possesses a one-in-a-million smile that lights up every ground he graces around Australia.
But behind the veil, Indigenous footy icon Eddie Betts carries around a pain with him that only people who have been racially abused would understand.
It beggars belief that there would be people in the community who would want to vilify not only an ornament to the game, but also such a likeable character.
What kind of person would do such a thing? Well, more often than not, minors are the ones who subject the legendary Carlton forward to such hurtful taunts.
But such is the mark of the man, the 34-year-old graciously acknowledges that kids aren’t born racist and that they learn the behaviour from somewhere, so he stresses that education is critical in battling the scourge of racism.
In the upcoming “Making Their Mark” docu-series, which kicks off on Friday via the Amazon Prime streaming service, Betts enduring, and grappling with, being on the receiving end of a racist slur is captured on film for all the world to see.
In another time, Betts would not have brought attention to it and just put it behind him, but after seeing what Adam Goodes went through in the last few years of his career, he now makes a point of calling out any instance of racism he cops, and he credits the Sydney champion for giving him his voice and determination to stamp out racism.
Betts tells Footyology that one of the main reasons he was happy he participated in the docuseries was that it showed him being racially abused.
“It was more so I wanted people to see it happens to me every year,” Betts said.
“And what I go through and how it affects me and not just me but my family, my kids, my close family and friends that are around me, and how hurtful it is.
“So they’ve captured that on this series and it’ll be good for everyone to sit back and watch and just realise that we’re just normal people like everyone else.
“I don’t put myself up above everyone, actually I put myself below everyone. I don’t want to be seen as [superior], I’m just normal. On the series, I’m just normal, myself.”
While Betts believes the AFL industry in general has come a long way in dealing with racism, he still thinks society can do a lot better.
The 331-game veteran would like to see not only every AFL club, but every organisation in Australia adopt the seven key dot points from Collingwood’s “Do Better” report, which found systemic racism had existed at that club for years, to keep themselves accountable.
“[They should] have a look if they’re doing what Collingwood said they’re going to do, and if they’re not doing that, then they start doing it to make it a safe space for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and multicultural people,” Betts said.
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“That’s the only way we’re going to move forward together as one, that we educate ourselves, understand what happened in the past and how hurtful it is, and what we’ve been through.
“But it’s not up to us to educate people, because we’re here to play footy, that’s the ultimate goal, there’s only so much we can do, but it tends to fall on us. I’m happy to educate people as long as they educate themselves and their friends and their family.”
Racism wasn’t the only hardship Betts had to battle with during hub life last season, with the then-father-of-four (now father-of-five) having to reconcile not seeing his family for some three months.
In fact, the 32nd greatest goalkicker in VFL/AFL history admitted that had he known before heading up north that he would be away from Victoria for 13 weeks, he would have opted out of the season.
Initially, after a meeting with the AFL Players’ Association and all the clubs, it was agreed to that hub life would only last four weeks. But everything changed as the Victorian government failed to contain the coronavirus within its state borders.
“It was pretty tough. Even just talking to your kids on FaceTime, seeing if they remember you, if they would know you when they meet you face-to-face in real life because they’re so young,” Betts said.
“It was really tough being away from them because my house is chaos – it’s hectic and chaos and I’ve been brought up like that my whole life, growing up in a community with all my family. It’s just chaos and that’s what I live with.
“And then going to not chaos, quiet, crickets … some people might love that, but I don’t,” he laughed.
A beautiful moment in the series comes when Betts is finally reunited with his children in Queensland, and sure enough, his youngest two daughters remember their father’s face and rush to embrace him.
“I’m not an emotional person, but when I met my kids, I was emotional,” he said. “I’m more of a family man and family is the escape and footy is footy, but being up there it was footy 24/7, so I couldn’t really escape it.”
A light-hearted aspect of Betts’ time up in the hub was that because he was one of the subjects of the docuseries, he was basically being recorded all the time by the Amazon crew, his teammates consequently jokingly calling him a snitch.
“They always called me that because I had a microphone on, but they’ve got to understand there was always a microphone over our heads,” he said.
“When we were on the field running around, they were tapping me on the chest [asking], ‘Are you mic’d up?’ [And I would respond] ‘Yeah, I am’, and they were like: ‘OK, I won’t say anything’.
“It was pretty fun. I forgot the mic was there to be honest most times, and I would say stuff and I was like: ‘They better cut that one out’!”
As Betts heads into his 17th season, he’s feeling confident about his prospects of lining up in round one against Richmond in the season opener. And if there was any doubt over his selection, he had this bit of advice for coach David Teague.
“The last time Carton beat Richmond [in 2013], I kicked three goals and we won that game, so if you want to beat Richmond, I was in the last winning team!”
*“Making Their Mark” debuts on Amazon Prime on Friday.
