Football fans have unleashed a torrent of abuse on social media towards the West Coast Eagles after the club re-released its "wings jumper" for "clash games" next year.
The Eagles were proudly spruiking the predominantly gold guernsey worn by injured superstar Nic Naitanui on their Facebook page on Thursday, with the jumper to be donned by players when West Coast's traditional blue clashes with opposition clubs.
"The gold guernsey has not been worn as part of the official West Coast uniform since 1994, but the wings set has now been re-united, with all three of the club's jumpers featuring the traditional design," a statement by the club said.
"The re-introduction of the gold guernsey comes just 12 months after the navy version replaced the tri-panel jumper that had previously been worn for home games from 2007."
But hundreds of fans took the Eagles' Facebook page to vent their disapproval.
"Looks like something you buy in Bali, not a fan of this one, don't they even run the new jumpers past their supporters anymore?," one person wrote.
"Insipid," another Eagles fan lamented. "After all these years, you'd think they could have created a guernsey with a design which looked more threatening, more inspiring. The eagle "floating" on the front is incredibly underwhelming."
Other Facebook-users found the bold gold unappealing.
"Sorry way too much yellow for my liking (my immediate thought was the hawks disastrous 'power ranger' away shirt - they never played well in that," one fan posted. " Need a more aggressive looking eagle on the front, something that says 'watch your backs'."
"Too much yellow - cheesy with mustard + peanut butter. give me navy blue any day," someone else posted. "how can you take yourself seriously in that?"
But some Eagles tragics embraced the new jumper.
"Nice choice. Beats that awful white thing which just gets covered in grass stains and looks like crap within minutes," one person posted.
"Awesome!! Best clash yet," another fan posted gleefully.
The Eagles won't be fazed by the naysayers, especially given the backlash the club got in April over a marketing gaffe with its 30th anniversary jumper, which was initially promoted as the "yellow peril is back".
Footy-goers took to the Eagles' Facebook page angered at the racial inference of the term, which had previously been used to engender fear of the Japanese in the mid-1900s and also describe Chinese immigrants during the 1800s Goldrush.
The Eagles ended up having to apologise for inadvertently causing offence.
"A young member of the West Coast Eagles' communications team was unaware of the history behind the term and the racist connotations it engendered," the Eagles said in a statement.
Despite the Eagles throwing a young staffer under a bus, a keen WAtoday reader found CEO Trevor Nisbett used the term in the club's Eagle Eye magazine, outlining a voting procedure for the "return the wings" campaign - the push by members and fans to have players predominantly wear West Coast's traditional guernsey.
"In addition, they would like to see us use the 'yellow peril' jumper for games where there is a clash of colours," Nisbett wrote.
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