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Opinion
If you haven’t read Russell Jackson’s incredible, harrowing recount on the ABC of the extraordinary racism revealed in Hawthorn’s external review into the last two decades, then here is where to start.
The accounts are sickening, the allegations horrifying. We can no longer pretend that the many instances of racism that have stained the game’s history, are consigned to the past.
Suffice to say, that three clubs, not just the one at the centre of the allegations, are facing difficult, yet necessary, decisions in the wake of the report.
Hawthorn must somehow find a way to atone for its disgusting treatment of its Indigenous players – the fact they only released a statement on Wednesday following the ABC report, and did so using the most aggressively offensive, wishy-washy, corporate-speaking BS I’ve seen in a long time, doesn’t inspire confidence.
And North Melbourne and Brisbane must make confronting decisions regarding their current senior coaches Alastair Clarkson and Chris Fagan – whether their involvement in the Hawks report, Clarkson in a ‘starring’ role and Fagan as a silent but present participant, makes their positions at the helm of those clubs untenable.
We’ll start with the Kangaroos and Clarkson. No doubt the Roos and CEO Sonja Hood were unaware of the extent of the horrors that had occurred involving Clarkson at the Hawks when they pursued and landed him as coach earlier this year.
North Melbourne have never been a big or powerful AFL club, but have been admirable in their conduct for years despite constant and unrelenting media scrutiny whenever they struggle. Whether resisting the AFL and all its might in choosing to remain in Victoria rather than move to the Gold Coast, or becoming the first team to move away from pokies machines as a revenue stream, the club has a long history of putting what’s right ahead of what’s financially lucrative.
Alastair Clarkson. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
This stands as their biggest test yet. Clarkson was meant to be the beacon of hope to light the way out of the darkness for the Kangaroos after successive wooden spoons. His arrival instantly gave the club respect, prestige and a standing in the game that they’ve lacked, perhaps since the turn of the millennium.
It would be a tremendously difficult thing for the club to sack its saviour before he has coached a single game. But it’s also the right thing to do.
The allegations made against Clarkson specifically in Jackson’s report are disgraceful, and even more so for a man with such power and respect galvanised by a string of premierships at the Hawks.
He allegedly ordered Indigenous players to convince their partners to terminate pregnancies, sever ties with their families and was involved in a process to remove SIM cards from their phones, all in the name of putting football over family.
If even one of the allegations is true – and there is absolutely, unequivocally no reason to doubt the testimonies of those whose stories were told by Jackson – Clarkson is unfit to ever coach again, whether it’s an AFL side or a Sunday pub footy league team.
Being a coach is about more than winning games and premierships – it’s about protecting, nurturing and developing the players entrusted under your care. Clarkson couldn’t have failed in this more at Hawthorn if the allegations against him are correct.
The Kangaroos must put the welfare of their players – especially their First Nations players – first.
North Melbourne can either put their club’s success first, or its own integrity and playing group first. It’s a horrible position the club has been placed in – it must be said that it is in no way comparable to the choices forced upon Indigenous players at Hawthorn – but it’s a decision that must be made, for the good of the Kangaroos and the league as a whole.
An even more difficult decision awaits Brisbane, where Fagan is entrenched as a widely respected and admired coach of Brisbane.
I’m perhaps even more disappointed in Fagan’s alleged role in the Hawks’ report: as a silent but present participant at a series of meetings in which First Nations players were ordered to tear their lives asunder for the good of the club.
Fagan has often been cast as the temperate counter to Clarkson at the Hawks, cooling his wilder impulses and keeping the famous hothead from going too far.
Even if his only contribution to the racism scandal at Hawthorn was sitting in on meetings in which players were told to sever ties with partners and family members, and not speaking up to decry what is going on, that’s more than bad enough.
We don’t know of any off-field instances of racism, or indeed of any other kind of mistreatment, at the Lions since Fagan took over at the end of 2016. You only need look at the scenes after the Lions’ finals wins over Richmond and Melbourne this year to see the love he bears for his players and they him. On the surface, at least, the club is unified.
But these allegations against Fagan are too severe to look past.
Earlier this year, the Lions, unlike other teams who offered half-gestures or avoided the issue entirely, made their attitude towards their Indigenous players and staff clear with a social media post joining the movement to change the Australia Day date.
Of course, the usual sorts came out and slammed it, as the club undoubtedly knew they would. It was a strong message of support – far stronger than what most rivals conjured up; and proved, in a small way, that Brisbane is a club not afraid to cop some backlash on the chin to show solidarity with First Nations people both within the club and without.
This is a far greater and more profound call the Lions face than a mere social media post, to be sure; but regrettably for them, the decision to retain Fagan as coach in light of these allegations would prove that the above gesture was nothing more than empty.
Through no fault of their own, North Melbourne and Brisbane now find themselves drawn into the dark, disturbing underbelly of the AFL world. The part we can, mostly, try to forget is there, or convince ourselves never existed in the first place.
To condone it by retaining their coaches would be to tacitly tolerate, if not condone, Clarkson and Fagan’s conduct at the Hawks.
They each face a choice to either continue to taint their clubs with the figures responsible for Hawthorn’s greatest shame, tarring them with the same brush; or make the strongest stance the AFL has ever seen that maybe, just maybe, it as a game can do better.
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