AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan says league is hunting leaker of Hawks report that caused ‘pain and angst’

Outgoing AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan says he and the league are very real about the possibility of finding out who leaked the Hawthorn cultural safety review that rocked the football industry.

The AFL says it is hunting the source of the bombshell leak of the Hawthorn cultural safety review that rocked the football industry.

Outgoing AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said on Friday that the league was actively trying to find out who leaked details of the review to the ABC during grand final week last year.

Pressed on 3AW radio whether he was satisfied with last week’s AFL resolution to the saga, McLachlan said: “Once that report was leaked … it was always going to be an incredibly difficult situation to get to the bottom of.”

He said the league was seeking answers as to how parts of the report were revealed before former Hawthorn staffers Alastair Clarkson, Chris Fagan and Jason Burt – who have strongly denied the allegations of mistreatment of First Nations players and their families – had been presented with the report.

“I am very real about the possibility of it (finding the leak) – we are asking some questions,” McLachlan said on 3AW.

“I would really like to know because it has caused a lot of angst and a lot of pain.”

Alastair Clarkson and Chris Fagan. (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)

He said it was “implausible” that the AFL “would have leaked something like that”, while the author of the report Phil Egan has also denied he had leaked the report.

McLachlan said the leaking of the report had hindered the process.

“I think for the defendants it’s clear there has not been a breach of the AFL rules,” he said.

“The complainants are parties to the agreement, they are happy with the process, and they have the opportunity, if they want, to pursue their rights in other forums.

“People can take this wherever they want, but it’s the end of the independent investigation that came out of the report that was handed to us.”

It comes as McLachlan, who will leave the league at the end of the season, did not rule out one day joining the AFL commission.

“I don’t think it’s right for someone who has been the CEO to be there straight away,” he said.

“Who knows? I am not trying to put my hand up or speculate, I am answering your question to say: ‘I think there needs to be space’. When CEOs go out of things, they do go back to boards, but I think there needs to be space.”

Originally published as AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan says league is hunting leaker of Hawks report that caused ‘pain and angst’