Caroline Wilson believes Jeff Kennett should remove himself from the debate surrounding Hawthorn and Cyril Rioli and allow the club to learn from the criticism.
Wilson’s article, published in The Age in March detailed Rioli’s exit from Hawthorn, with an incident involving Kennett and Rioli’s wife, Shannyn Ah Sam-Rioli, seen as the last straw in a long line of incidents.
Speaking at the Hawthorn’s President’s lunch at the MCG before the Hawks took on the Saints in Round 4, Kennett vehemently denied that he or the club were in any way racist.
“I do not accept and I completely, absolutely, utterly reject that I am in any way racist. It’s an awful slur for anyone to have to bear,” Kennett said.
“And nor is our club racist and nor do I think the AFL community is racist, nor St Kilda. But we have a job to do and we have to keep working hard to improve the circumstances of our First People.
However, Wilson told the Don’t Shoot The Messenger podcast that the 74-year-old is missing the point by making himself the centre of the story,
“No one in the article I wrote says Jeff Kennett is a racist. Jeff Kennett needs to step back, this isn’t about him,” Wilson said.
“The Riolis perspective was that Hawthorn did not have the adequate cultural awareness for Indigenous Australia at their football club at a time when they were bringing in so much Indigenous talent.”
Wilson recently added further layers to the story when publishing an interview with former Hawthorn Indigenous liaison officer Leon Egan, who said the club prioritised winning over cultural awareness.
In the article, Egan is quoted as saying he believes the club is trying to make changes in the cultural awareness space under CEO Justin Reeves, the former Hawthorn staffer wanting to give the club the chance to acknowledge its wrongdoing in the past.
Wilson added that club legend Shaun Burgoyne was stunned to learn that Egan was not let into the rooms after the club won the premiership in 2015.
“Shaun Burgoyne was horrified, and implored the club to bring Leon in more than one day a week,” she said.
“They did not recruit indigenous footballers until the 1990s, and that was something they chose to do.”
Following Wilson’s original article, there have been numerous reports of individuals struggling to get in contact with Rioli.
However, Wilson said those efforts appear superficial, given the Hawthorn champion has been in contact with those who have made a genuine effort.
“People who have really tried to contact Cyril have (successfully) contacted him,” she said.
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has stated that the club needs to give Rioli time to reconcile with the people at the Hawks.