Sports journalists trade in words. While an understanding of the game, insight into how it is played, and the ability to contextualise what is happening on the field are important skills, they hinge on the words with which they are articulated.
One of the tasks of the sports journalist is to shape narratives. There is drama intrinsic to sport, but the sports journalist draws it out, identifying heroes and villains, and slotting each performance into a broader arc.
Such power to influence the way the public understands a particular game or player ought to be wielded carefully. Too often, it is not.
This is best demonstrated by the ways in which commentators and journalists speak about Indigenous athletes, as well as athletes of other minority groups. A simple superlative can be loaded with more than a century of cultural baggage.
The way athletes are described can challenge stereotypes or reinforce them. Whether intentionally or not, all too often journalists perpetuate the idea that Indigenous athletes belong to a category of their own: they are the Other, to be considered and understood differently to white athletes.
It's hardly a new insight. Academic Sean Gorman has written insightfully on the 'Black Magic' trend, and former Sydney Swans champion Adam Goodes wrote an excellent column in 2010 addressing exactly this issue. Yet the phenomenon continues, and commentators, journalists, clubs and fans continue to link the performance of Indigenous players and other players of colour with racist stereotypes.
Perhaps the oldest and most egregious of these is the myth of the magical footballer. Consider the nicknames of some recent Indigenous AFL footballers: Liam Jurrah 'the Warlpiri Wizard', and Michael 'Magic' O'Loughlin. Words like 'magical' and 'mercurial' are often used to describe impressive performances by Indigenous players.
Invoking the idea that Indigenous players have a supernatural skill set or understanding of the game plays into the offensive trope of the 'magical negro', a still-common narrative device that centres on a person of colour with spiritual wisdom or supernatural powers who intercedes to help the white protagonist achieve their goal.
Indigenous players and social commentators alike have repeatedly called out this trend as racist, yet writers continue to use the word 'magic' to describe footballers. Multiple stories written in the wake of last year's AFL grand final, including this and this, used the term 'magic' to describe Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli's exceptional, and highly skilled, performance.
Other stereotypes are less obvious yet perhaps more insidious.