A report commissioned by the Australian Football League advised Hawthorn Football Club (HFC) to provide monetary compensation and issue a public apology to First Nations players and families affected by alleged “bullying and intimidation.”
The call for a “restitution package” is one of seven recommendations in the report published by the Herald Sun yesterday.
The cultural safety review found a “strong theme” in interviews with 17 First Nations people that there was “little regard” for cultural safety or family values between 2010 and 2016.
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“Bullying and intimidation tactics were reported to be used to isolate First Nations players from their families and communities,” the report said. “It is also noted that partners of players who have tabled these serious allegations were in the early stages of pregnancy with two mothers losing their unborn child during these dramatic events.”
The review recommends the club “develops and offers a reparation and restitution package to the victims of negligence and abuse committed to them by the identified members of the HFC football department” and that the restitution “be in the manner of financial reparations and an official public apology.”
In one account, an ex-player alleged that former Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson stood over him in an “intimidating way” after he shared news of his partner’s pregnancy. It was alleged the coach demanded the indigenous player get rid of his unborn child and “wild woman.”
“He told me to kill my kid,” the report quoted the player as saying. “They took the phone from me, replaced the sim card and then said that I will be living at [redacted] house from now on.”
The internal report recommends the findings of alleged “negligence and human rights abuses” toward First Nations players committed by Clarkson, then manager Chris Fagan and welfare manager Jason Burt be reported to the AFL integrity unit.
The four-time Hawthorn premiership coach yesterday said he remained “shocked and deeply distressed” by the allegations of racism outlined in the review and feared his chances of a fair process could have been “irrevocably corrupted.”
Clarkson — recently appointed North Melbourne coach — last week emphatically denied the allegations.
He yesterday said the allegations were “false and deeply offensive,” adding that those close to him knew “how important family is to me.”
Clarkson said that it remained “profoundly disappointing that these matters are now being widely canvassed in the public domain without the opportunity being given to me or others to give our accounts or even read the Hawthorn report, which to this day I have not seen.”
He said he would cooperate with the AFL after delaying his start at North Melbourne but said he would “not hesitate” to take further steps to protect his position and reputation “should that be necessary”.
Fagan, now coaching Brisbane, has taken an indefinite period of leave from the club and released a statement this week categorically denying the allegations against him.
The review recommended the creation of a general manager of indigenous development and a cultural safety and self-determination framework, and that indigenous cultural immersion training be made compulsory for all staff.
It said that the research team considered some of the experiences to be “such serious allegations of abuse, racial vilification and bullying to amount to human rights abuses which require immediate mandatory reporting.”
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