Outgoing Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has fired back at club great Chris Langford, warning the champion player and leader he had been fed inaccurate information for political purposes, while also defending the behaviour of his board.
Langford had strongly criticised the lack of leadership at Hawthorn in recent times, in particular the handling of and response to the club’s cultural safety review as well as governance issues.
Outgoing Hawks president Jeff Kennett.Credit:AFL Photos
In an email to Langford on Monday, Kennett said that the former AFL commissioner, hall of fame member, captain, premiership player and member of the team of the century had been misled.
“Sadly, you are clearly getting your advice from one party only,” Kennett wrote.
“We are, as you know, a very good club. We have excellent governance. We are in the best position we have ever been in. We are financially sound, we have started our AFLW life and Dingley is being constructed.
“Yes, some want to challenge, as is their right, but none have offered a program that differs from ours. All they have done is attack the board members and [presidential candidate] Peter [Nankivell] in particular who has delivered the bold initiatives we are delivering.
“Peter is in no way political. He is not my candidate; he is the board’s, and some of the nominations committee of which Andy was a member, but of course [Gowers] did not support Peter as he was clearly thinking of standing himself. He did not oppose Peter either. In Andy’s normal way he just remained silent.
“Peter is the most experienced, qualified person to lead the board for the next few years.”
Kennett told The Age the club handled the cultural safety review, completed by Phil Egan, appropriately and had refrained from public comment at the behest of the AFL’s legal counsel Andrew Dillon.
“Andrew strongly advised against it [public comments]. That advice was relayed to the board by Peter Nankivell, discussed and respected,” Kennett said.
He said the club received the report the night of Wednesday September 7, and had a board meeting at 8am the next day.
“As an ex-AFL commissioner, you will know there is a procedure to follow required of the clubs by the AFL,” Kennett said.
He said that Nankivell met with AFL executive Andrew Dillon at 6.15pm on Sunday September 11 and the report was given to the AFL integrity unit at 10.30am on Monday September 12.
A week later, on Monday September 19, he said the ABC sent questions about the story “to a number of parties” and on Wednesday September 21 the ABC broke the story “after speaking to some of the complainants.
“The HFC met all its obligations as required by the AFL. We were not able to speak publicly about the findings as those interviewed did so on the basis of anonymity,” he said.
“You said this morning that the club made no statement until weeks after, that is not correct. Our first public comment was made through a press conference by Peter Nankivell and [CEO] Justin [Reeves].
“I was overseas when all this was occurring. I do not offer that as an excuse. The reality is Peter was in charge, he is calmer than me, a senior legal fellow so he handled this very well.”
