The NRL are investigating alleged racist abuse after eight spectators were thrown out of Central Coast Stadium during the NZ Warriors' match against the Penrith Panthers on Friday night.
During the first half, a group of eight men - some of whom were in Warriors, Kiwis, All Blacks and Panthers gear - were escorted from the ground after Penrith wing Brent Naden informed a team trainer of alleged racial slurs.
After scoring the opening try of the match, the 24-year-old claimed the fans followed him from the 20m line to halfway, yelling abuse.
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said Naden, who is proudly Indigenous, was "OK" after the match, but the incident overshadowed Penirth's 18-12 win - their ninth-straight, a new club record.
Fox Sports announced it will hand over vision of the incident to police, while acting NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo said racism will not be tolerated.
Abdo said the governing body took the matter extremely seriously.
"We will work closely with NSW police, stadium authorities and the clubs to determine the facts and take decisive action against anyone guilty of racial abuse. I will call any player involved to ensure they are receiving the support they need. Racism and vilification will not be tolerated in our game.
"Bringing communities and cultures together is part of rugby league. We pride ourselves on being inclusive and taking a leadership role in driving social change."
Initially, it appeared to just be Warriors fans who were a part of the group, but Fox Sports commentator Matt Russell confirmed after the match that there were people in Panthers jerseys too.
Interim Warriors coach Todd Payten was surprisingly not asked about it after the match, but club chief executive Cameron George did release a statement.
"We do not condone any sort of racial remarks towards anyone playing rugby league or in general and we completely support a tough stance against this behaviour.
"The Warriors embrace all cultures and race and proudly promote inclusiveness of all cultures and race in our great game."
Naden hasn't spoken about the incident yet, but Cleary said it's not the first time racial abuse has come his way.
"It affected him," says Cleary. "He even said he didn't expect it to affect him.
"He was a bit surprised he was affected by that. He certainly took offence to it at the time but he's OK now. It's one of those situations I guess where you can only react to how you feel at the time.
"Whatever was said - and I don't know exactly what was said - definitely affected him."
Former Warriors halfback and Fox Sports pundit Greg Alexander called for the fans to receive lifetime bans.
"It's a disgrace. These clowns should never get into an NRL game again, and their pictures should be up on every home ground to make sure they don't enter the field.
"If it's true, and what they said, that's the end of those blokes. They've just watched their last game."
Long-time Warriors fan the Mt Smart Joker posted a video on his Instagram account, which appeared to show the group of fans acting disrespectful towards the indigenous community.
After the match, Fox Sports was contacted by a man claiming to be the brother of one of the ejected people. He admits his brother, who is a Panthers fan, hurled abuse towards Naden, but it wasn't racist.
"He promises, he says he's done nothing," the man, who chose to remain anonymous claimed.
"He's not racist. He was with his mates, he told me they were yelling out stuff like 'Brent Naden you're a goose' or whatever but football-related things, not racist things.
"He's pretty upset. He goes, 'I'm going to lose my job, I told my bosses I'm not racist.'
"They're going to speak to him on Monday when he gets to work anyway.
"He goes for Penrith. I said why would he do it? He's going to lose his job over it. His boss was watching the footy like me."
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