Pies coach slams Adelaide crowd for jeering Quaynor

Rankine was banned for four games and missed Thursday night's qualifying final in Adelaide.

The Adelaide Oval crowd loudly booed Quaynor each time the Magpies defender touched the ball in Collingwood's 11.13 (79) to 8.7 (55) win.

The pro-Crows crowd also jeered Collingwood's Dan Houston, who reportedly sledged Rankine during the August home-and-away encounter.

Adelaide is believed to have the sledging from Houston as a factor in Rankine's mindset when he directed a homophobic remark at Quaynor.

"It is disappointing,:" McRae said.

"Not just Isaac, but Dan.

"And these things, there's always stories behind things.

"I'm just not a booer, I said this years ago ... I just get disappointed with that, I find that really disappointing."

Asked if the jeering of Quaynor was pointed, McRae said: "I'm not sure.

"Just when I first heard, I thought: 'Oh, that's just disappointing'

"And, geez, he must have touched the footy a lot because he had a lot of the ball - really proud of him and Dan and others.

"I'm not sure if it's pointed. You have to ask the people that booed in the crowd."

Quaynor paid scant attention to the jeering.

"I did hear a little bit of it," he told SEN Radio.

"But to be honest, I get so locked in on games, I don't really pay much mind to anything else other than what is on the field ... I honestly just didn't pay much mind at all."

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks refused to comment on the crowd behaviour.

"It's not one for me to comment on," Nicks said.

"But I am also sitting in a box, I'm not seeing or hearing any of that. I'm seeing a stadium that's rocking, which it should do for a final, but I'm not going to comment around that."

His counterpart McRae said he was "pretty keen not to make this the story of the game".

"I'm sure you can report on that, but it's not the story of the game, is it?" he said.

"There's a story behind it and you can write what you like.

"I'm disappointed in the booing, but not just tonight, I have always been disappointed in booing.

"We'll protect our players as best we can. We love and support them around the edges."

Rankine, the sixth AFL-listed player banned for an on-field homophobic slur since April last year, has now served two matches of his four game ban.

Adelaide's loss to the Pies offers him some hope of playing again this season. He will be available again should the Crows advance to the grand final.

Rankine attended Adelaide Oval on Thursday night but Nicks said his potential availability wasn't a talking point at the club.

"Izak was here tonight, yep, but that's not even a conversation for us at the moment," Nicks said.

"Right now that's a long, long way off. We've got work to do well and truly before that."

After returning to Adelaide from overseas on Tuesday night, an emotional Rankine pledged to work to regain society's trust and fought back tears during a public apology.

On Thursday morning, he apologised to the Crows' AFLW team for the first time since making the homophobic slur.