The series of events known as the Hawthorn racism saga have cost the club and competition millions of dollars, damaged the reputations and wellbeing of coaches and officials, while opening up the ongoing pain and suffering of several Indigenous ex-players and partners from their time at the club.
It would not be fully accurate to say that the saga ended on Wednesday when Hawthorn reached a confidential settlement with the Indigenous ex-players and official – including estranged ex-champion Cyril Rioli – as there are still loose ends, and further costs that Hawthorn might bear, but we are in the dusk of an episode that dragged on far longer – at least 18 months – than anyone hoped or wanted.
Hawthorn have endured two years of turbulence.Credit: Stephen Kiprillis
At the end, Hawthorn found an escape route.
They have averted further mind-boggling costs that would have been incurred had they continued to fight a legal battle in the Federal Court against the six people – Rioli and his partner Shannyn Ah Sam-Rioli, ex-player Carl Peterson, ex-Indigenous player and club staffer Leon Egan, and ex-player Jermaine Miller-Lewis and his wife Montanah-Rae Lewis.
Hawthorn had offered a modest $50,000 per plaintiff for a total of about $300,000. The final settlement exceeds that amount but will be a fraction of what they would have spent in court.
The joint statement put out by Hawthorn and the players and partners is carefully crafted. It is an acknowledgement of hurt endured by those who took the legal action and that “they represent their truths”.
Crucially, it includes the S word: “Hawthorn is sorry and apologises that the former players, partners and their families, in either pursuing a football career, or in supporting such as person, experienced ongoing hurt and distress in their time at the club.”
It is a statement that is notable for what isn’t said, too.
The allegations – the most incendiary of which was that Alastair Clarkson encouraged Peterson to have his then partner terminate a pregnancy (which Clarkson and Fagan and welfare manager Jason Burt have strenuously denied) – were not addressed.
Peterson, Rioli and company had met with Clarkson, Fagan and Burt at the Human Rights Commission earlier this year, in what various informed parties (it is confidential) say were face-to-face encounters that healed much of the division.
Former Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson.Credit: Joe Armao
Clarkson is said by people involved to have shown considerable empathy and care to those players, including Peterson (whose allegations were the most serious and damaging to the coaches), as did Burt, who had some players live at his home and who, like the coach, had acted in what he felt were the best interests of those players.
It is telling, largely due to those genuine encounters – which were more human than legalistic – that the players/partners let go of any potential claim against the coaches. Fagan was viewed by all as a more peripheral figure in the saga than Clarkson, who, as a senior coach with a high profile, was always the public face of this story ever since the ABC published on the basis of a cultural safety report in which Peterson, Miller-Lewis and another player – not involved in this legal settlement – aired the allegations, without the accused officials having the opportunity to put their versions.
So, the heartfelt encounters between the officials and players/partners, left Hawthorn alone fighting in their corner.
Hawthorn were in a bind. They could only run up a huge bill – millions if it kept rolling – in court and even if they won legally, it wouldn’t be a good look to seek to recover costs from the Indigenous players/ partners. Law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler was acting pro bono for the complainants.
Cyril Rioli and his wife, Shannyn Ah Sam-Rioli.
So the Hawks couldn’t win. It would have been a public relations disaster to even ask for costs. They could only limit the amount of financial, emotional and reputational damage.
This was their eventual choice. It should have happened sooner.
That Human Rights Commission process didn’t decide who was telling the truth about particular allegations. Rather, it was the expression of sorrow – and the ability of the players/partners to have their truths aired – that acted as an emotional circuit-breaker.
The lawyer acting for the players, Leon Zwier of ABL – renowned for his deal-making approach – issued a statement (on LinkedIn) on Thursday that highlighted this cathartic truth telling as paramount, even if it was unspoken that the versions of events remained apart.
“ABL is proud to have represented the former Hawthorn Football Club players, and their partners in relation to their claims of racism in football. Through this litigation I have been educated by my clients and Teresa, one of the mums, about inter-generational racism, unconscious racism, paternalistic racism and racism generally. I have also been privy to truth telling and the remarkable impact it had on all parties. These claims have brought about much needed reform and learning.
“This settlement is also a credit to all the parties who participated in the truth telling with dignity, respect and authenticity.”
It seems clear that forceful former president Jeff Kennett’s view – that the club shouldn’t settle for allegations that weren’t proven (Kennett’s board had commissioned the cultural safety report and handed it to the AFL) – was another reason that the Hawks were reluctant to put this to bed earlier. Others within the club felt that they should settle.
The saga was, unfortunately, escalated by the AFL’s establishment of an expert panel – replete with high-level KCs (chaired by KC Bernard Quinn) – which had to balance the legal rights of all those affected, and was unable to resolve an impasse.
The AFL’s own finding, endorsed by judge John Middleton, saw Clarkson, Fagan and Burt cleared of any wrongdoing.
The panel faced a nigh-impossible task and, after hearing a ton of submissions, the AFL wound it up in the recognition that the hearing wouldn’t bring an end to a saga that was always destined to end up with settlements to the players.
