Radio presenter Gerard Healy has joked “black men can’t swim” while live on air with fellow broadcaster Kane Cornes.
The two former AFL players host Sportsday, which airs on SEN Melbourne from 5:30pm Mondays through Thursdays. On Wednesday’s show, Cornes, as part of his regular “Kane’s Countdown” segment, counted down his top 10 favourite sports movie, with 1982’s Rocky III coming in at the top of the list ahead of Rudy and Rocky IV.
At number nine was the 1992 basketball comedy White Men Can’t Jump, starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.
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Professing he hadn’t seen the movie, Healy joked: “White men can’t jump? Used to be black men can’t swim!”
The remarks went directly to air and have been verified by Crikey, despite having been edited out of the podcast version of the show that was uploaded to streaming services the next day.
Healy, an Australian Football Hall of Famer, was the 1988 Brownlow Medallist and a three-time All-Australian over a decorated career that also saw him recognised in the Sydney Swans team of the century. He has worked in media since retiring from the game in 1990.
He is also no stranger to an on-air gaffe, accidentally referring to the Gold Coast Suns as the “Gold Cunts” in a 2013 slip-up in a live cross ahead of a fixture against Melbourne at the MCG.
SEN CEO Craig Hutchison didn’t respond to questions or repeated attempts to contact him about Wednesday’s incident.
After the removal of cricket reporter Peter Lalor from air earlier in the year over pro-Palestine social media posts, Hutchison said SEN (in reference to its cricket coverage) was “a celebration of differences and nationalities and a place where our SEN audience can escape what is an increasingly complex and sometimes triggering world”.
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