WEST Coast has strongly denounced a series of horrible, racist comments on Instagram towards its gifted young forward Liam Ryan as "abhorrent, disgusting and vitriolic garbage".

Multiple people made racist remarks about Ryan on a 7AFL Instagram post, leading to star teammate Nic Naitanui voicing his outrage about the comments on social media.

It led to a strong response from Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett, who blasted the comments and urged the perpetrators to be held to account.

"The comments posted by some people on social media are absolutely abhorrent," he said.

"The continued use of the term monkey is disgusting and these keyboard cowards must be held to account.

"To have this occurring so consistently, albeit by a minority of people, is distressing and completely unacceptable.

"Our society expects better, our players expect better and our club expects better. This must stop and we must make a stand.

"We have to be respectful of all cultures and accept people for who they are. No one should be subjected to this hateful and vitriolic garbage."

The footy world had already rallied around Ryan on Monday morning.

"These fools need to be held accountable at some stage," Naitanui tweeted.

AFL Players' Association boss Paul Marsh also commented on the issue, saying: "More hatred directed at one of our players. This ongoing issue needs to be addressed at the source. Change is needed so that these gutless people can't hide behind anonymity."

A number of other players have also spoken out against the vile comments, including Phil Davis, Shaun Burgoyne, Eddie Betts, Steven May, Christian Petracca, Chad Wingard and Angus Brayshaw.

It follows on from last week's online abuse directed at Carlton forward Tayla Harris, while last month star Crow Eddie Betts was subjected to a racial slur on Instagram.