SEN’s Gerard Whateley has backed calls for further external reviews at AFL clubs on the handling of past and present Indigenous players following the bombshell Hawthorn report.
The report, from ABC Sport’s Russell Jackson, alleged that key figures at Hawthorn, including Alastair Clarkson and Chris Fagan, were responsible for the mistreatment of Indigenous and First Nations footballers.
This stemmed from an external review commissioned by the club which revealed distressing claims including the club pressuring a player and their partner to terminate a pregnancy.
In response to the allegations, Whateley called for clubs to do “whatever is required” to make AFL clubs safer spaces for Indigenous Australians.
“We kid ourselves that the game has led and reformed and built this beautiful experience for Indigenous Australians as a broad brush,” Whateley said on SEN’s Crunch Time.
“That’s clearly not true, I look at some of the responses to this, ‘Clarkson was great with Indigenous players’, says a white guy.
“This is always on our terms, ‘You can’t take offence to that, that’s not how we meant it’, no, it’s got nothing to do with us, it’s about how it was to you.
“This is why Eddie (Betts) for so long behind the scenes has said there’s a desperate need for an Indigenous welfare officer at every club.
“Someone who would have the cultural sensitivities and the expertise, counselling and awareness to guide everyone through this.
“There’s a responsibility when you bring an Indigenous player into your club which I think is viewed completely differently.
“It’s, ‘Look what we’re doing for Indigenous Australians’, no, it’s the other way around.
“I suspect these stories need to be told across the competition in this period of time so that whatever is required, not the wearing of colourful jumpers, but whatever is required is actually there in the aftermath of this.”
In backing Betts’ push for every club to follow suit, Whateley pondered whether an amnesty may be necessary to ensure that the full story comes to the fore.
“We owe a lot to Eddie Betts within football,” Whateley said.
“I’ve consistently said he will change the country, but he will change football first.
“His notion of an ongoing commission or a look at each club’s involvement through time.
“It might need to be accompanied by an amnesty to get the right stories told.”
A four-person panel, led by a King's Counsel, will now investigate the claims separate from the AFL Integrity Unit.