A man claiming to be the father of the banana-throwing Port Adelaide member in the middle of an AFL racism storm denies his daughter had racist intent and that she is being “demonised” by a sensationalist media.

On Saturday night, the fan threw a banana towards Indigenous Adelaide star Eddie Betts, an act condemned by the AFL as “clearly an unambiguous racist act”.

On Sunday, Port Adelaide completed an investigation into the matter which concluded it was racially motivated. But a man calling into Adelaide radio station FiveAA on Monday morning said his daughter had been unfairly targeted.

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“Unless my daughter was on drugs overnight, no way in the world,” the man who identified himself as “Don” said. “The thing that irritates me the most is that we’re playing the racist card here. It was more an act of frustration than a racist act where she’s thrown a banana.

“You’re playing the racist game. I’m not condoning what she’s done. This is called media rubbish. Why do you people sensationalise things?”

AFL aboriginal advisory Committee chair Paul Briggs said there was no debate as to the intent.

“While speculation and debate will occur around the motivation of such behaviour, it is clearly an unambiguous racist act, something most fair-minded Australians would find appalling and unacceptable,” he said.

Incoming AFL inclusion and social policy manager Tanya Hosch said: “On behalf of the AFL, I want to say that we know racism exists in our game, as it does still in the broader Australian society.”

Hosch did not want to comment on the individual case but drew a parallel between the Adelaide Oval incident and historic banana-throwing condemned as racist.

“The throwing of a banana and its association with slurs on indigenous Australians and other cultural groups, which has sadly occurred in sports around the world, is deeply racist and offensive, and should be rejected by every part of our game, including clubs, players, fans and supporters.”

“The AFL will work with the club as they finalise their investigations and provide support on any further action required,” Hosch said.

Later on Monday the AFL’s chief executive officer Gillon McLachlan described the fan’s behaviou as an “unambiguosly racist” act that left him “disheartened,” but that he believes the AFL industry’s handling of affair shows progress.

“We are on a journey to progress,” McLachlan said. “We’re really pleased that the behaviour was called out by so many in our community and even by Port Adelaide fans (at the time). We’re certainly asking our crowds to call out this behaviour. A silver lining in this has been the calling out from the crowd at the game and also the football community.”

McLachlan said he’d spoken with Betts’ wife Anna Scullie, who had shown him how powerful sport can be in driving social change. “I got great comfort in what she saw ... as progress being made and football being important in that conversation,” he said. “Every time we’re standing up here the outcry from the football community is greater ... it accelerates how far we’ve come.”

“Progress is hard fought. You have to have knocks like this that hurt you initially to have the conversations that take you forward and that’s part of our journey.”

Also on Monday, AFL players joined those calling out the behaviour. AFL players’ Indigenous advisory board chair and Hawthorn premiership-winner Shaun Burgoyne said the incident had appalled players. “There’s no room for racism of any form in our game and we are saddened that incidents of this nature continue to occur,” Burgoyne said. “Eddie Betts is one of the most popular players in the game and his 250th match should have been a time for celebration.”

“The AFL industry is taking great strides to ensure Aussie Rules is a game for everyone, but this serves as a reminder that more work needs to be done.”