When Mick Malthouse, a (former) AFL senior coach, was reported in 2010 to have called Stephen Milne, a player from the opposition team, a “fucking rapist” during a televised match, these words threatened football with an act of heresy that would unmask a connection between Australian football and rape. In the public “trial” of Stephen Milne, which spans a decade, the performative effect of words uttered and by whom reveals the extraordinary life of a single utterance to transform what was a dropped investigation in 2004, to rape charges some years later and, finally, a guilty plea of indecent assault. What is distinct about this case is the way in which the female victim of indecent assault continues to be displaced and erased throughout the narrative discourse. Public debate is instead reduced to the permissibility or impermissibility of abusive speech acts in Australian football. When it comes to the ritualized practices of abuse in football, the figure of Stephen Milne can be seen to represent a magical boundary between heresy and humor. Through an analysis of online football fan responses to the Malthouse-Milne episode, the symbolic relationship between verbal abuse and sexual abuse in Australian football is revealed.

2010年，据报道，（前）美国橄榄球联盟（AFL）的高级教练米克·马尔特豪斯（Mick Malthouse）在一场电视转播比赛中称反对派运动员斯蒂芬·米尔恩（Stephen Milne）为“他妈的强奸犯”，这些话以一种异端威胁了足球。揭露澳大利亚足球与强奸之间的联系。在斯蒂芬·米尔恩（Stephen Milne）长达十年的公开“审判”中，言语的表演效果以及由谁揭示了一次言语的非凡生命，可以改变2004年被放弃的调查，几年后强奸指控，最终，对不雅攻击的认罪。该案的不同之处在于，在整个叙事性话语中，de亵攻击的女性受害者继续流离失所和被抹杀。相反，公众辩论仅限于澳大利亚足球中滥用言语行为的允许或不允许。当谈到足球中的虐待行为时，斯蒂芬·米尔恩的身影可以看作是异端与幽默之间的神奇界限。通过分析在线足球迷对《 Malthouse-Milne》情节的回应，揭示了澳大利亚足球中口头虐待和性虐待之间的象征关系。