Bloody hell. What were the Adelaide fans thinking on Thursday evening, booing Collingwood’s Isaac Quaynor – the victim of Izak Rankine’s homophobic slurs last month – every time he touched the ball?

He’s the bloke who did the wrong thing??

Seriously. Rankine himself seems nothing if not sincere in his apology, and gets it. The Crows crowd does not. The whole thing had shades of the appalling Adam Goodes saga a decade ago, when the Sydney champion was booed all over the country essentially for being an Aboriginal man.

What should have happened then is what should have happened on Thursday evening. When their crowd behaves in such a disgraceful manner, it behoves the captains of the team to momentarily down tools and stop playing.

“Oi! We want to be proud of the club we play for, and win matches. But we cannot be proud when you behave like this, booing a worthy opponent. STOP.”

The Athletic sportswriter Matthew Futterman raised a very interesting point this week. Tell ’em, Matthew.

“Of all the quirks, expectations of politesse and tennis etiquette that are supposed to be followed, the net-cord apology might be the silliest of all.”

Novak Djokovic apologises after hitting a net cord at the French Open.Credit: Getty Images

And he’s right. The way it works is, when you hit the ball and it clips the net then dribbles over for your point, you’re expected to raise your hand and apologise to your opponent. Why the hell? What have you done wrong, exactly?

As Futterman points out, nothing of the kind happens in other sports. “Baseball players don’t apologise when a long fly ball hits the top of the fence and bounces over for a home run. Placekickers don’t apologise when a field-goal attempt clanks off the uprights and drops behind the crossbar for three points. In soccer and ice hockey, a shot that caroms off the iron and into the net is a work of brilliance. Ever see a basketball player apologise after a 3-pointer bounces 10 feet in the air and drops through the net? Of course not.”

Sold.

Vale, “Aussie Joe” Bugner. He was a lovely bloke, and well-liked, with an extraordinary life story. While he had his admirers for his ability to take deathly punches and stay standing, he also had his critics for his lack of ability to throw them in return.

Sports Illustrated once said of him: “He has something in common with Michael Jackson. He wears a glove on his right hand for no apparent purpose.” With a similar bent, the legendary Scottish boxing and sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney once noted that “Joe Bugner possesses the physique of a Greek statue but with fewer moves.”

Joe Bugner and Muhammad Ali ahead of their fight at Madison Square Garden in 1975.Credit: AP

I first came across him in 1987 when, after he had decamped to our country from Britain, he resumed his career........

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