Mitch Brown has blasted Bailey Smith for being ‘homophobic’ while also branding him a ‘loser’ after the Geelong star’s Brokeback Mountain social media post during Geelong’s Mad Monday celebrations.
The Cats suffered an agonising defeat by Brisbane in Saturday’s AFL Grand Final and, after having licked their wounds, Chris Scott’s team headed down to the Wharf Shed in Geelong to celebrate the end of the season.
Smith had arrived at the party dressed as Brad Pitt’s character, Tristan Ludlow, from the western movie ‘Legends of the Fall’, donning a cream coloured cowboy hat and a open-collar white linen shirt. He told reporters outside the bar that he was ‘ready to pin the ears back’ after having not ‘sunk p*** all weekend’.
The former Western Bulldogs star, who placed third in this year’s Brownlow Medal race, had raised eyebrows earlier in the afternoon for mocking respected footy journalist Caroline Wilson on his Instagram, by using an emoji that is often used to imply sexual connotations.
And Smith may have landed in more hot water after publishing a photo of himself and team-mate Patrick Dangerfield, posing for a picture, wearing their western-themed costumes.
The 24-year-old had previously published a snap of himself and Brad Close, who was dressed as the renowned Geelong fan the ‘Catman’. ‘Catman and legends of the fall,’ Smith captioned the image.
Bailey Smith (left, pictured with Patrick Dangerfield) has been blasted after the footy star appeared to make a reference to Brokeback Mountain on his Instagram. The Geelong player had dressed with a western theme, before writing: ‘This is what losing a Granny does to ya,’ on his Instagram
Former West Coast player Mitch Brown took to Instagram to hit out at Smith over his comment, first stating: ‘Just for the record Heath Ledger’s way hotter’, publishing a picture of the late actor
Brown, who is the AFL’s first openly bisexual player then went on to slam Smith, calling him ‘a loser’ and adding ‘last time I checked losing a Grand Final doesn’t make you gay’
He then captioned the image of himself and Dangefield: ‘Or Brokeback Mountain, depends on how ya look at it.’
Dangerfield stood behind Smith and placed his hand on the Cats midfielder’s stomach.
Smith added: ‘This is what losing a Granny does to ya. Alright, phone away now. Bye.’
The Geelong midfielder is facing criticism for the social media post, with the AFL’s first openly bisexual player, Brown, subsequently hitting out at the Cats midfielder on social media.
Brown first published a picture of Heath Ledger on his story, who plays the lead character Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain.
‘Just for the record, Heath Ledger’s way hotter,’ Brown said, appearing to fire shade at Smith.
He then followed that story up with another message, writing: ‘In all seriousness, though, guys do better.
‘Last time I checked, losing a Grand Final doesn’t make you gay, but being homophobic definitely makes you a loser,’ Brown said.
Smith had also published a photo of himself and Brad Close, who was dressed as the infamous Geelong fan Catman
Smith deleted this photo from his Instagram, with himself and Max Holmes (left) who was dressed as respected footy journalist Caroline Wilson
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Smith’s representatives and Geelong for comment.
Brown made history in August, becoming the first player to ever come out as bisexual, with the former West Coast star subsequently calling on the AFL to do more when it comes to educating players around inclusivity and homophobia.
Smith may also find himself in hot water over a sledge he made to footy journalist Caroline Wilson.
His team-mate Max Holmes arrived at Geelong’s Mad Monday party dressed up as the Channel 7 and The Age reporter. He donned a black wig and a red dress, while also carrying a fake bow and arrow – a reference to her segment on Channel 9’s Footy Classified called Caro’s Arrow.
Smith took to Instagram again to publish a snap of himself and Holmes posing in their outfits, with the footy player captioning the image: ‘Caro has never looked better.’ He added a sweat droplets emoji to the image, a symbol that often carries sexual connotations.
The image was swiftly deleted by the Cats star, but he added another of himself and Holmes later giving the middle finger to the camera, while Holmes was still dressed as Wilson.
It comes after Wilson slammed Smith for verbally abusing a female photographer during a training session. He is understood to have told the snapper: ‘you do a f**king s**t job’. He had previously clashed with the photographer after he was seen giving her the middle finger while she attmpted to take a photo of her while having treatment on his back.
Wilson branded Smith a ‘brat’ over the incident.
Brown (pictured) made history in August, becoming the first player to ever come out as bisexual, with the former West Coast star subsequently calling on the AFL to do more when it comes to educating players around inclusivity and homophobia
It comes after Wilson branded Smith a ‘brat’ after the Geelong player verbally abused a photographer
‘There seems to be one set of rules for Bailey Smith and one set for everyone else,’ Wilson told 3AW.
‘I know there are a lot of women who work in the media this week who are disgusted by what happened to Alison Wynd down at Kardinia Park this week.
‘A Geelong Advertiser photographer doing her job on a day where the media had been invited in to cover training.
‘Not only does this young player who, I’m sorry, is behaving like a brat, give her the finger, but then he swears at her when she reminds him that she’s just doing her job.
‘Now, this is not the first time, apparently, he has targeted Alison Wynd and I think it is really disappointing that it took another club person to ring her up and apologise and that when Bailey Smith did apologise, it was via text message. I mean, how weak is that?
‘This is a guy who gets up on stage, and I applauded him for doing it, and talked about his mental health battle, is he the most selfish player in football? What about other people’s mental health?’
