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Four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis hopes the club’s successful era hasn’t been tarnished by shocking allegations made in Wednesday’s bombshell racism report.
But AFL360 co-hosts Mark Robinson and Gerard Whateley have questioned how far teams are willing to go to achieve the ultimate success in footy – as Hawthorn joined Adelaide in dragging the game through an off-field player treatment controversy.
Claims made against the Hawks include First Nations players being separated from partners, intimidated and bullied, while the most shocking is the allegation former coach Alastair Clarkson urged one player to instruct his partner to terminate a pregnancy.
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Lewis, who was at the club during the period raised in the report, said the claims were “devastating” but remained steadfast that teammates were “kept in the dark” over the issues raised.
“Having been involved at that football club and understanding the culture and the indigenous players that were there and the love and care that we show from a playing point of view, and then to realise they had these experiences that we were, not sheltered from, but we weren’t privy to these conversations,” he said on AFL360.
“I can honestly say hand on heart when it came out this morning, and you ring around ex-teammates, and teammates to see if they had known anything about it, and to a man, no one ever heard of anything like this happening in our time there.
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“It’s clearly disturbing if these allegations are true and that have happened to these individuals when it should have been a really safe environment.
“It’s upsetting sitting here today speaking to ex-teammates non-indigenous and indigenous players and we all feel the same – we all feel like in some little way we may have let them down.”
When asked directly if the allegations tarnished the club’s success in the early-to-mid 2010s, Lewis said he “hoped not”.
“When you listen to past players, current day players speak about this issue like we had today – we had no idea that it happened,” he said.
“It wasn’t an incident or thing that has been brought about by the behaviours of the playing group that has then gone on to these decisions being made. These are circumstantial and the players that were unaware of it but certainly the people who were involved in these decisions, we were kept in the dark from a playing point of view.
“I think if we were to be there and understand these issues were raised when we were there, there would have been a stronger statement put out by the playing group that this is not OK.”
Whateley questioned if the AFL and its clubs really had a player’s best welfare in mind at all times.
“It’s always on white man’s terms (for indigenous players),” he said.
“You want to progress in the game? These are the circumstances – leave the community, come to the private school, we’re going to recruit you and bring you here.
“There are a litany of scars that the game has – the rawest that will never heal, being the Adam Goodes incident.
“Then you add the element of what on God’s green earth are we doing in the name of football and in the name of elite sport – this was part of the Crows camp conversation. What are we doing to young men in the name of sport? And that sits very heavily.
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“There’s a lot of preaching around, we treat you as a person first and a player second. We would like to believe that’s true and I’m sure in some instances and some environments and with some coaches, it is absolutely true – but it’s not a universal truth across the game. And we are deluding ourselves repeatedly if we’re prepared to look past this.
“I think it’s footy’s dirty little secret.”
Robinson said the AFL now had 15 to 20 years of “failings” when it comes to dealing with racism in the game.
“The AFL did nothing to the Crows – nothing, no punishment. They didn’t even punish Eddie McGuire (for his racist remarks) – they were kicking fans out of the ground for abusing umpires but they are not punishing some of the senior office holders in our game,” he lamented.
“Andrew Demetriou said, ‘Oh no, I think he’s punished himself enough’. No! No, punish! Send a message. This is not good enough – not because he’s your mate. Don’t look after him.
“Here we are – 2022 and this has come out.
“The AFL does some great stuff – we’ve got a great sport … but we fail our indigenous people time and again.
“Every third year, bang, bang, bang, bang.
“When’s the AFL going to do something about it?”
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