Stereotypes can be difficult to break down. Particularly when it comes to sport. And, so it seems, with sporting crowds.

For most of my lifetime in this country, AFL football has been portrayed publicly as a family-friendly, peaceful form of entertainment, while soccer has mostly got a bad rap as being prone to all sorts of trouble, whether it be those ubiquitous flares or gangs of supporters looking for trouble.

Both codes have worked hard to make sure people can go and just watch their teams in safety. But still hardened attitudes get in the way. As does a lack of professionalism, and regularly, simple common sense.

And to that end, there was an interesting contrast at the weekend. Not for the first time of late, there was significant crowd issues at the MCG on Saturday, when traditional rivals Carlton and Collingwood clashed.

On radio station 3AW, callers flooded the switchboard post-game to talk not about the Magpies’ win, but a series of drunken brawls which had broken out, children terrified, people sitting nearby suddenly fearing they’d be enveloped in the violence.

The main complaint was that security, whilst exerting a strong visual presence, did little to intervene. That’s hardly the first time we’ve heard that complaint when trouble has erupted at an AFL match.

Police officers have swooped on a man at the MCG, after separate brawls broke out among fans late in this afternoon's match. #9News pic.twitter.com/GD3ft4VnGL — Nine News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) May 11, 2019

But it certainly wasn’t the issue at the A-League semi-final between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory at Jubilee Oval in Sydney’s Kogarah on Sunday. In fact, quite the reverse.

After a season of following the same crowd protocols at the same venue, Sydney supporters were suddenly confronted with draconian new measures, at best impractical, and at worst hostile and completely uncompromising.

That came home to roost when well-known Sydney fan Rory Carroll was evicted from the ground along with his distressed disabled daughter, whom he had attempted to take to a nearby toilet rather than one a long walk away to which he’d been directed.

Had the incident not been captured on someone’s mobile phone, it would have remained unreported. But the footage was damning of both security and police, one man surrounded by a gaggle of uniforms seemingly intent on evicting the man calmly attempting to explain the situation.

Not surprisingly, after the footage was posted, social media blew up in fury. Because, again, this was hardly the first time soccer fans in this country had been treated with a lack of empathy bordering on contempt. And it happens far too often.

That is due in no small part to a pre-determined mindset by security and, yes, police also, that soccer crowds spell trouble, especially when the game is between two big rivals like Sydney and Melbourne.

Getty Images https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sportal_com_au/5a/8/police-cricket-mcg_5jg8mwcb99b71468cl8f6ayak.jpg?t=-1352143678&w=500&quality=80

A couple of years ago, I took my teenage son to a Melbourne derby at Marvel Stadium between Victory and Melbourne City.

It was a big crowd, but one completely at ease, full of families and lots of children, as A-League games regularly are. But as we, and they, approached the gates, we were confronted by a huge wall of police dressed in full riot gear, clearly expecting trouble.

It was a massive and unnecessary overreaction, intimidating and completely off-putting for anyone not familiar with such a sight, and one clearly driven by the old stereotypes that certain elements of the media in this country have also had little hesitation in perpetuating for their own grubby commercial objectives.

One thing which infuriates local soccer fans, I think rightly, is that the merest hint of trouble at an A-League game is unfailingly beaten up to within an inch of its life in the media, while, at least until recently, crowd issues at AFL games have been treated more sympathetically.

I’ve been going to VFL and AFL games on a weekly basis for just on 50 years now, and I’ve been to local soccer games plenty over the last decade or so. From my observations, the crowds are no different, in fact often exactly the same people. Yet the stereotyping persists.

I grew up on the terraces at suburban VFL grounds, where fights were all too common. It was rare indeed that they were even reported, until, in 1982, Robert Dickson, an innocent bystander at a game at Princes Park, merely trying to protect his six-year-old son from a brawl, was hit by a coward’s punch and killed.

That tragedy led to a ban on bringing alcohol into grounds, and to the introduction of a two-can limit at bars inside grounds.

I have absolutely no doubt that there is significantly less crowd trouble at AFL games now than there was then, and that the advent of cameras in mobile phones and social media sees what crowd violence there is highlighted more frequently. And that’s a good thing.

But it’s also high time some ancient attitudes to crowd control at different football codes in this country was updated as well.

As far as AFL goes, while there’s a visible enough security presence, how effective is it?

Club members regularly complain about opposition supporters being allowed to wander into what should be reserved seating comprised of the home club’s supporters, a sure breeding ground for trouble.

The casualisation of workforces sees too many security staff who simply aren’t equipped, either physically, or in terms of their inter-personal skills, to defuse any sort of trouble. Is it any wonder not enough of them want to wade into the middle of fist fights?

And, frankly, a lot of security appears just for show. At Marvel Stadium, there’s much production made of cars parking underneath the ground having their boots checked. But often bags that are in those car boots aren’t even unzipped. What’s the point, then?

And soccer? How about a bit of practical common sense? Those upsetting scenes involving Carroll and his daughter at the A-League on Sunday could so easily have been avoided by just one official prepared to understand that a man with a young child with special needs deserved listening to, not frog-marched out of the stadium.

There were 10 cops to throw out a father and his 3 daughters out of the football. What an absolute joke @ALeague #SYDvMVC #BigBlue #ALeague pic.twitter.com/IXwrmB5Cu8 — John Miles-Craig (@aussiejcmc) May 12, 2019

You can be prepared for trouble. It shouldn’t mean you also point blank refuse to listen to what people have to say, or to treat each case on its merits.

Yes, AFL crowds can cause problems. No, A-League crowds aren’t all looking for trouble. The acceptance of those two premises not just by those two sporting bodies, but by the security which controls their crowds, not to mention the media organisations which report on them, is a good starting point.

It’s really not that difficult to understand, is it?

*You can read more of RoCo’s work at Footyology