Ordered to terminate a pregnancy. Forced to break up with partners — and supervised while doing so. Phone numbers changed and communication with family monitored. The allegations from a review into racism at the Hawthorn Football Club, as revealed by the ABC, are shocking.
They expose an alleged culture under four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson and former assistant coach Chris Fagan of abuse, deeply entrenched racism and control over Indigenous players’ lives and families.
Fagan has stood down as Brisbane coach pending an independent investigation and Clarkson has delayed his start at his new club North Melbourne pending an independent investigation commissioned by the AFL. Clarkson has denied the allegations while Fagan has been reported as saying he had no knowledge of the meetings at the centre of the claims.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney called the report harrowing. “Aboriginal kids grow up dreaming of playing footy,” she wrote on Twitter. “For many just being drafted to a club is the highlight of their career, the culmination of years of hard work. They deserve so much better.”
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan fronted media this morning, saying the club “needed to do more”.
“We need to run a proper investigation to get to the bottom of it and this is important,” he said. “So many people are hurting today and have been hurting for a long time.” He said that an independent panel would allow the accused to “give their version of events”. The report will not be publicly released.
General manager of inclusion and social policy at the AFL Tanya Hosch said the country has a problem with racism: “If you look at any organisation in the country, specifically for issues in relation to the treatment, cultural safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, you would anticipate finding a problem.”
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said on ABC Radio National that the AFL was an iconic institution and needed to be an exemplar — not unlike Parliament House — where “the very best standards need to apply”.
Former footballer and ABC presenter Tony Armstrong asked viewers this morning to “spare a thought” for the First Nations community, saying it had been a “tough little period” following coverage of the queen’s death, the banning of spit hoods which are disproportionately used on Indigenous peoples, and revelations of racism in the Kumanjayi Walker inquest.
“We’ve had 517 deaths in custody since the royal commission to date and now these allegations, contextually on all of that, it is not easy,” he said.
One player alleged a group of coaches urged him to have his partner’s pregnancy terminated for the sake of his career, was told he’d have to move into the home of an assistant coach, and had his SIM card removed to limit contact with family. The couple proceeded with the pregnancy but — after the stress and trauma — terminated a second one, saying the club caused them to break up.
Another player said he was escorted to his and his pregnant partner’s home and instructed to inform her the relationship was over. He was later informed during training that she had miscarried. Another said he was permitted just a few days at home with his partner and newborn.
Australia has a shameful history of racism and racism in sports. Last year a review into Collingwood found the club was guilty of systemic racism and failed to effectively deal with racist incidents, while Hawthorn has been criticised for past treatment and inclusion of Indigenous players. Last year, the Australian Human Rights Commission released a report on how to address spectator racism in sports.
Already Hawthorn Football Club has attempted to distance itself from the allegations, calling them “historic” in a statement released this morning.
“This important work has raised disturbing historical allegations that require further investigation. Upon learning of these allegations, the club immediately engaged AFL Integrity as is appropriate,” the statement reads.
“While the process indicated the current environment at the club is culturally safe, it also recommended that some of the club’s current First Nations training and development programs should continue to be strengthened.”
Several incidents allegedly took place under Clarkson and Fagan, who worked together between 2013 and 2016. To protect the identities of the families, names and dates have been omitted from the ABC’s report.
The AFL has also released a statement — again calling the allegations “historic” — saying it is “finalising its own process to investigate the allegations and is seeking to speak to those who shared their experiences with Hawthorn’s review”.
“We are committed to the welfare of all involved.”
The AFL Players’ Association, which established an Indigenous Advisory Board in 2011 to advocate for First Nations players, has called for a well-resourced and wide-ranging independent investigation into the allegations.
This article was updated at 6 pm on September 21.
For anyone seeking help, Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue is on 1300 22 4636 and the First Nations Support Line is on 1800 959 500.
Leaving aside the details of these particular allegations, let’s put a stop to this gross abuse of the adjective “historic”. It is used glibly by those who want to escape censure or blame. Given that everything that might be subject to an enquiry is always in the past, all such attempts to minimise or trivialise an allegation by saying it is historic is disingenuous, self-serving and dishonest. Just look at all the ministers and other politicians who insist that there’s no point in investigating their conduct because it happened last year, or before the last election, or whatever. If they have not actually been caught red-handed today it’s always too “historic” to be worth any fuss. How convenient.
“Historic” should be reserved for events that are not only in the past, but have been known about for long enough to be familiar and well understood without further investigation; or else entirely concerned with the actions of persons who died long ago. In contrast, given these particular allegation have just emerged, they are very much current.
Agree, SSR. the murdering/misuse of the language continues apace these days.
Remember that the ABC has never accepted the reality of the AFL’s utter dominance in elite recruitment…….to the situation where all sports have significant disadvantage in their recruiting initiatives – including Olympic sports such as athletics, basketball and Cricket Australia in their pursuit of fast bowlers and batsmen. Before long an average signup fee will be a seven figure number. Beat that !
Dragging up old stories in ‘finals week’ is pathetic parochialism from Sydney centric Australian journalism.
This racist behaviour is far more important than finals week.
This is rich white men controlling indigenous lives. Totally unacceptable. Let’s hope that the commission gets to the bottom of this and severe consequences follow if appropriate.
“This allegation of racist behaviour…” TFIFY.
Not really. Hawthorn commissioned an investigation themselves and received the findings two weeks ago; the AFL got it a week ago. The ABC caught wind of it and did some independent investigating.
Russell Jackson, who broke the story, is Victorian.
So that’s how you view clearly racist behaviour, mind games from Sydney to threaten the finals
Guess what? Your precious VFL has a racism problem, don’t like me saying that, you’re also part of the problem
VFL.?
Take it from a ‘Mexican’ you are clueless.
Maybe parochialism but elements of truth in that cricket and rugby union are in decline due to the perceived narrow cultural bases, especially cricket.
AFL itself had a phase a decade or more ago when interest and involvement in basketball was significant, think due to promotion by the NBA, to produce basketballers. Apparently AFL’s response was to swoop on younger, taller and coordinated players and poach them….
Other issue AFL has is the hollowing out of the third tier or suburban and regional leagues highlighted by mergers and/or closures; much underpinned by changing demographics and more sport/recreation choices.
In the third millennium, streaming sport is the new invader threatening the survival of FTA TV.
The AFL’s expansion has resulted in a voracious appetite for fast thinking elite endurance athletic talent, impacting all competitors. The latest 7 year multibillion media deal will soon include the last unrepresented state.
We always underperform in world athletics competition and nothing is going to change.
$A1:million as a sign on fee is laughable small by U.S. standards of recruitment…….and that’s the future for media content seeking to survive.
Fully agree, appalling weasel words. This happened in the 2010s, not some fifty years ago when racism and sexism were only weakly challenged. This happened well after the stolen generations report yet it was seen as ok to pressure an Aboriginal couple to have an abortion, to tell an Aboriginal man who he could be with? There is no way this can be dealt with by an “it’s all in the past” and “we didn’t know any better then”, so beloved of white privileged men. Alongside the “we meant well”.
Then again the Catholic Church was still covering up for and diminishing the import of its actions right into the late 2010s. This assumption of the right to casual appropriation of other peoples lives and bodies dies very hard indeed.
I await some mouthpiece describing the ‘enormity‘ of the problem totally unaware of what the word means.
Family can be an issue for indigenous young people going well because of the issue of humbugging. By doing well I mean making a good income, or any regular income. It is not unusual for family members to hassle a regularly paid indigenous worker to the extent that they resign from their employment and go on the dole like the others. Especially when the demands are so high and from so many relatives that the person has to pick and choose who gets the money because then they are challenged on why some get it and others dont.
What it means is that these highly paid indigenous players dont have a cent of their own. They are supporting dozens of others. That means they cant function as their team mates do off field and it creates huge social pressures for them.
At the time of his death famous artist Albert Namitjura, was supporting 600 family members who had a claim on his money.
There is more to this than the average shiny pants in the city is aware of. Lets here the full story here. I expect we will hear that humbugging by the family is behind the clubs actions and the clubs should be heard with an open mind.
“. . . and the Clubs should be heard with an open mind.”
Well here’s a racist comment dressed up in I don’t quite know what. Sounds exactly like the treatment of Adam Goodes that drove him out of the game wasn’t racist.
The ABC has a TV prog. called “You Can’t Say That!’ devoted to uncomfortable truths.
The thing about You Can’t Ask That – note the “ask” not “say” – is that we listen to the answers.
Everybody has ‘answers’ – two a penny – but not many have sensible questions.
If you ask the questions of the relevant people and reject their answers about their lives as “two a penny”, you are simply demonstrating your prejudice.
I’ve not asked any question – it is a general philosophical position that everybody & their dog has opinions & answers.
Very few have the wit to pose sensible questions.
Good point and this humbugging comment should have provoked some pretty fundamental questions from you. I’ll start you off with JUST one. People who reach the highest levels (such as young people who are drafted to an AFL team) very rarely do so without strong support from people close to them. Why would you assume that these young players have no such ongoing support from their circle of family and friends, particularly in the modern world with so many communication options – an assumption fundamental to this accusation that you and others have made.
The only person making assumptions & accusations is you.
Historic my arse. The two key
men in question have highly paid head coaching jobs.
Sydney knows it’s AFL finals week.
It’s their contribution to Australia’s preeminent professional sport.
What on earth are you on about? And have you considered a career in politics?
Clueless
He’s just hurting the VFL got called out on racism and is having a sook because it’s finals week and he things his sport is under threat
Taking lessons from Morrison?
‘… give their version of events…’
Generally speaking, a perpetrator is unlikely to be candid. And, in these cases, the alleged perpetrators have a great deal to lose.
Allegations reveal nothing until they are proved. The more serious the allegation – and these ones are horrific – the more careful we should be in writing about them.
Too many articles, like this one, are written as if all the evidence is in. Plenty of time for that down the track.