Rapper Briggs rips into Storm over Welcome to Country

Indigenous rapper Adam Briggs has criticised the Melbourne Storm for cancelling a planned Welcome to Country ceremony just hours before kick-off at their Anzac Day NRL match.

“It’s pretty pathetic, to be honest, they made this call a while back to wind back Welcome to Country ceremonies and Indigenous engagement,” Briggs told the ABC.

“It’s unsurprising and their claim that it was a miscommunication is a cop out.

“Why would Melbourne Storm buckle, placate to wannabe neo-Nazis, if that is what in fact drove their decision earlier in the day?

“It’s not a welcome to the country, it’s a welcome to country – it’s about the history of the land they’re a part of.”

Storm chairman Matt Tripp said the issue had arisen from a misunderstanding between the board and management.

Tripp stated the board had only approved Welcome to Country ceremonies for multicultural and Indigenous rounds, but not Anzac Day.

But Aunty Joy Murphy, who had been scheduled to deliver the welcome, has since said she was told the ceremony had been cancelled by the board because of the booing of Uncle Mark Brown at the Anzac Dawn Service in the city earlier in the day.

Aunty Joy Murphy said she was told the ceremony had been cancelled by the board.

“I was told it was about the booing that happened and something like protecting or looking after you,” she told the ABC.

‘I don’t need protecting … I don’t understand it.’

Mr Tripp said he was “acutely aware of the many different cultures and races we have involved in our football club and our supporter base”.

“Like I do with anything within the club, I guard that with my life and I want to protect that at all costs.

“To have a miscommunication deem us as non-sensitive to Welcome to Country and beyond that, a part of Australian customs, that has upset me greatly.”