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Hawthorn legends and premiership teammates of Cyril Rioli Jordan Lewis and Luke Hodge have reacted to the Hawks great’s involvement in a bombshell open letter that has reopened the club’s racism scandal.
Rioli, as part of a group including wife Shannyn Ah-Sam and former First Nations Hawks Carl Peterson and Jermaine Miller-Lewis, announced they will be taking Chris Fagan, Alastair Clarkson and Jason Burt to the Human Rights Commission over serious allegations of racism during their time at the helm of Hawthorn, while also decrying the AFL’s investigation into their claims as a ‘s–tshow’.
Rioli, the 2015 Norm Smith Medallist and a beloved figure at the Hawks, had previously revealed a series of racist incidents during his time at the club, including an infamous incident with then-president Jeff Kennett and Shannyn at Launceston Airport in 2018, had permanently fractured his relationship with the club and led to his early retirement.
Speaking on SEN, Hodge, a four-time premiership teammate of Rioli’s, said the revelations came as a ‘shock’.
“I know Cyril is the biggest name out of the lot but those guys were teammates,” Hodge said of Rioli, Peterson and Miller-Lewis.
“Cyril is obviously the one who had the longest relationship with us so to hear the stories that they’ve told and how they’ve felt, a lot of it did come to a shock because when I left Hawthorn and when Cyril left Hawthorn a year later, I had text messages back and forth… it took me by surprise.
“But in saying that, you don’t divulge all your feelings to people.”
Speaking on Fox Footy, Lewis said the allegations ‘cut a bit deeper’ coming from someone as close to him as Rioli had been during their Hawthorn days.
“It was tough to read for anyone – knowing the person, it probably cuts a little bit deeper,” Lewis said.
“His [Rioli’s] experience is not as good as I would have imagined it to be.
“Those guys have been named now so they’ll go through due process.
“Hopefully sometime in the near future get a resolution for everybody.”
Cyril Rioli (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Hodge and Lewis have both, however, again showed support for Clarkson, Fagan and Burt, saying they are hopeful the removal of the Hawks families’ anonymity with the open letter will allow both parties a chance to tell their side.
“I think I’m the same as everyone, we’ve heard one side of the story,” Lewis said.
“I think everyone sits back and wants to hear the other side.”
“We’ve heard one side of the story through parts that were given to the media,” Hodge said.
“I think everyone sits back and they want to hear the other side. We’ve had three, in Burt, Fagan and Clarkson, that have, over 260-odd days, haven’t been able to tell their story.
“The statement they [Hawthorn families] put out is they [Burt, Fagan and Clarkson] didn’t want to go to mediation – the hard part is you can’t go to mediation unless you know all the information that’s been said about you. You want everything to be told, so at least you can go there with clarity of ‘what am I going there accused of’ so then you can have these open conversations about it.
“All the information wasn’t given to these gentlemen, so that’s the hardest part.
“Talking to the three guys, they want to go and chat to these guys and talk about it, but they haven’t been able to because of the confidentiality, because the information wasn’t passed on.
“They’re open to going and telling their story and trying to work this out, because it’s gone on for all parties that are involved and their families… there’s no doubt they’re all hurting.”
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