{"id":3368,"date":"2026-05-02T09:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/3368\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T09:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:46:19","slug":"afl-news-2026-essendon-fans-called-out-for-bronx-cheering-ben-mckay-in-loss-to-brisbane-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/3368\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Essendon fans called out for bronx cheering, Ben McKay in loss to Brisbane Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon<\/a> fans have been called out for their bronx cheering of defender Ben McKay, during the side’s hefty loss to Brisbane<\/a> on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

McKay had a game-low five disposals against the Lions, taking just two marks in the blowout defeat. <\/p>\n

Whenever he did touch the footy however, Bomber fans jeered and heckled him from the stands. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Legend’s advice for Hird as coaching return hinted<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Greats slam umpiring controversy as AFL bosses booed by fans<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Lloyd’s four teams that can win the flag and one tough omission<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben McKay of the Bombers warms up.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

During the fourth quarter, McKay intercept marked a Lachie Neale kick to the goal square.<\/p>\n

And Essendon fans gave him the loudest bronx cheer yet for it, which didn’t sit well with a few of the game’s broadcasters.<\/p>\n

“I’m not sure if that was a positive cheer,” former West Coast coach Adam Simpson pointed out on Fox Footy.<\/p>\n

“Bit of a whipping boy today. He hasn’t done a lot wrong. Just hasn’t done a lot.”<\/p>\n

“He’s only had the four disposals, but that’s not his role,” St Kilda great Leigh Montagna replied.<\/p>\n

AFL player manager and former Geelong star Liam Pickering was particularly disappointed in the behaviour of the Essendon fans.<\/p>\n

“Listen to that. It’s actually cruel, that, to be honest,” Pickering told SEN.<\/p>\n

Leading AFL commentator Gerard Whateley, sitting next to Pickering, agreed. <\/p>\n

“Essendon fans should have a real think about whether they want to do that,” Whateley said.<\/p>\n

A leaked whiteboard at Brisbane’s training facility<\/a> labelled McKay’s weakness as “low confidence” on Friday. <\/p>\n

Whether it was for form reasons or because of the jeering, the Essendon defender spent a large portion of the third quarter on the bench.<\/p>\n

McKay’s brother Harry, who plays for Carlton<\/a>, sat out for a period of the 2025 season as he battled mental health challenges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ben McKay said at the time he was “proud” of his brother for taking the situation seriously.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old joined Essendon as a free agent for the 2024 season from North Melbourne<\/a>, and was reportedly paid as much as $1.5m in that first season, on a deal worth as much as $6m.<\/p>\n

He has played 112 AFL games – 41 of those for the Bombers.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Essendon fans were called out for a similar treatment of one of their own in midfielder Brent Stanton.<\/p>\n

Dons fans actively booed and jeered Stanton during a game against West Coast<\/a>, where he was substituted out with an injury.<\/p>\n

“It’s just amazing really that our supporters can do that,” then-Essendon coach Mark Thompson said after the game in 2011.<\/p>\n

“We rate him as one of our best players, so you’d think our supporters would cheer him.”<\/p>\n

Stanton currently works at the Bombers as an assistant coach.<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs immediate support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or via lifeline.org.au<\/a>. In an emergency, call 000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon fans have been called out for their bronx cheering of defender Ben McKay, during the side’s hefty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"class_list":{"0":"post-3368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brisbane","8":"tag-brisbane"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}