Hawthorn club president Jeff Kennett has been left “devastated” by a confronting report on the club’s past treatment of Indigenous players, including claims coach Alastair Clarkson urged a player to get his partner to agree to an abortion.
Club vice-president Peter Nankivell and CEO Justin Reeves – who was not at the Hawks at the time of the allegations – fronted the media on Wednesday, without Kennett who is overseas, to address the “disturbing” claims.
Reeves revealed the club was made aware of the shocking report two weeks ago and “immediately” contacted the AFL’s Integrity Unit.
He said any current staff member found to have engaged in the alleged mistreatment, some of it dating back to December 2014, would be dealt with.
“The club will always act in the most appropriate and responsible manner,” Reeves said.
“We have a board, a governance in place. Certainly the club won’t be discounting anything or forecasting anything into the future.
“We will take everything on its merits and act in the what we think is the best interests of all of our people.”
The report claims First Nations players were bullied and made to relocate from their homes, while another player was intimidated in a bid to separate him from his then-partner.
Some of the allegations involve Clarkson – who has recently signed a big-money deal at North Melbourne, Brisbane coach Chris Fagan, who was an assistant coach at the Hawks at the time, and Hawks player development manager Jason Burt.
Since the allegations were made public on Wednesday, Fagan has taken a leave of absence from the Lions, while Nankivell said he had reached out to Burt, but only “left a message”.
Nankivell said he’d spoke to Kennett multiple times since being first made aware of the report.
“Jeff like all of us is devastated – there’s no other word for it,” he said.
Reeves opened Wednesday’s press conference with a statement, and said Hawthorn figures like current coach and former player Sam Mitchell were completely unaware of what the report alleges.
“We’ve spoken to a really wide range of people who were at the club at the time – it’s been a surprise to everyone that I’ve spoken to, the findings of the report,” he said.
“When you do open an investigation to anything of your past, you never know what may emerge.
“This process was initiated by the club to speak purely to our First Nations past players and staff. We had no idea what was to come out of those conversations.
“We didn’t speak to anyone outside of that group – well, the consultants didn’t speak to anyone outside of that group. It wasn’t an investigation as such. There was no allegations – it was more for us to check in on people’s welfare and wellbeing post their time at the club.
“That report came back with some quite disturbing allegations that we acted on that straight away.”
The de-identified report has been labelled one of the most “damning” in AFL, amid claims the club showed a “coldness” to First Nations players and their families that led to one player attempting self harm after being delisted.
“I read the report like you guys today – it’s tough reading. It’s heartbreaking,” Reeves said.
“We said in our statement earlier this morning that these allegations are extremely disturbing.
“We are profoundly disappointed that some of our former players and their families feel like this about their experiences at the club.
“The club will continue to offer support for those who have participated in this process and their wellbeing remains our priority.”
Reeves said Australia, as a nation, has a “culture problem” that needed to be addressed.
“I think Australia has a culture problem, historically. I think like all of us, we focus on every day being better and building a great environment for our club,” he said.
“I feel confident from the report as well that currently our players feel culturally safe, but like so many institutions I think we have to face our history and our past and we have to act responsibly and we have to cooperate and move forward from that.”
The AFL has announced an external review will be undertaken.
