Former Hawthorn head of player services and football administration Jason Burt has hit out at an open letter penned by four of the families associated with the club’s ongoing racism saga.
Burt claims that the families had been seeking cash, and disputed the allegations made as “wrong”, in a statement through his lawyers on Saturday.
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Hawks refused compensation request | 01:36
“It is simply not true that the complainants have not been seeking financial compensation,” the statement added.
“The AFL had thousands of documents from Hawthorn and detailed information from me, Alastair and Chris which showed that their allegations were wrong.”
The statement went on to state (on behalf of Burt) that Burt had always been co-operative, and welcomed further court proceedings as an opportunity to clear his name.
“Jason has always been willing to meet with the complainants. The only thing he asked for before meeting with them was access to the Hawthorn documents that the lawyers for the complainants refused to release until late last week,” the statement read.
“The allegations the complainants have made are wrong.
“Jason may respond in further detail when he has had time to consider this latest statement from Leon Zwier and welcomes the opportunity to do so in any court.”
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Burt was named alongside former head coach Alastair Clarkson and current Brisbane coach Chris Fagan (previously Hawthorn’s general manager of football from 2008 to 2016) as central to a series of allegations first reported by the ABC in 2022 of historical racism at the club, uncovered as part of the club’s cultural safety review.
The Indigenous families’ letter, on behalf of the likes of four-time premiership star Cyril Rioli, alleges that they were victims of racism, and also includes allegations of forcible separation.
The letter also alleges that in one case, the family were urged to have an abortion.
All three accused men have denied all the claims made in media reports and the open letter.
The letter described the ongoing ordeal as a “public s**tshow”.
“We are some of the Indigenous families who endured racism at the Hawthorn Football Club,” the letter states.
“We were separated from our families.
“We were told an unborn child would ruin our futures.
“We were treated as special projects and control of our lives was taken from us. We told our truths in confidence, because we believed that it would bring change. And because we needed to heal and move on.
“That confidence was betrayed.”
Burt penned a statement on social media after an interview with the Nine papers in which he said he did not feel he owed any apology.
“Right now, I’ve got nothing to say sorry for,” he said in the interview.
“I can honestly say the people involved in this investigation – and the families, particularly the players – left better people, better men, for being at Hawthorn.
“I’ll never really understand what an Aboriginal person, a First Nations person, feels. That’s just common sense. I don’t know how things I may have done have been received. And I’m sad for that, and I’m sad for them.”
In the statement on social media, Burt called Hawthorn’s investigation “a disgrace”, and the first of a range of examples of “poor governance” on the club’s behalf.
“I also think it’s important to clarify that “Zac” and “Kylie”, who continue to make allegations to the media, are not Indigenous Australians,” he said.
In a response to Burt’s interview, one of the families, through their lawyer Judy Courtin, released a statement in which they expressed that they were “disgusted” at how their experiences had been represented.
“While our clients are grateful to Jason Burt for acknowledging some elements of the past events, they are disgusted at how they are being downplayed, and in some instances, entirely misrepresented,” the statement reads.
“Jason’s version (of events) is completely inaccurate.”
The AFL released a statement on Tuesday 30 May saying its own investigation into the allegations had terminated with the consent of the families, with no charges to be brought under the AFL Rules as a result.
The AFL resolved in its Tuesday statement that “no adverse findings (had) been made in the Independent Investigation against any of the individuals against whom allegations (had) been made”, but that it did not “preclude the AFL from bringing a charge under AFL Rules against Hawthorn FC”.
The AFL’s statement also acknowledged “each one of the Complainants feels hurt, pain and anguish following their time at Hawthorn FC.”
The group of families state in the letter that their consent to the termination of the AFL’s Independent Investigation was “not out of fear, but strength, because the AFL finally apologised to all First Nations players for racism in football.”
“They acknowledged our pain and hurt when we were at Hawthorn. They made a legally binding promise to us to combat racism in football,” they said.
“And the game will be safer for all First Nations families because of it.”
The letter states that if conciliation action in the Commission fails, that the families will pursue “the Federal Court, where we will tell our truths in the witness box.
“But they will hear us one way or another.”
It is understood that there remain more families with complaints of their treatment in similar circumstances, but that these families were not a party to the letter, or the AFL’s investigation and subsequent agreements.
