Hawthorn First Nations inquiry: Club not expected to lose any draft picks
The AFL’s investigation into Hawthorn’s First Nations inquiry continues to drag on, but an expectation of whether or not the club will lose any draft picks has been revealed.
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Hawthorn is expected to avoid losing any of its cherished draft picks as the league’s “reasonably expeditious” investigation into the club’s First Nations inquiry drags on.
When the First Nations families agreed to resolve their differences with the AFL in late May, it was confirmed the league was looking into Hawthorn’s conduct in launching a cultural safety review.
AFL legal counsel Stephen Meade is assessing whether the Hawks brought the game into disrepute with the lack of guardrails around the investigation, which did not seek comment from Clarkson or Fagan and was ultimately leaked to the media.
The league has the right to strip draft picks from Hawthorn, which currently has the No. 3 overall selection in November’s draft.
But the strong expectation is that the Hawks will sidestep penalties involving their draft picks despite the “conduct unbecoming” investigation given they were not seeking to gain an advantage over a rival club.
While AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan made clear on May 30 the Hawks could face sanctions, they are strongly defending their position.
Hawthorn has responded to the AFL’s request for clarification on the nature and execution of the Binmada Report into cultural safety with a reply to the league’s queries.
McLachlan later made clear the AFL was attempting to find the source of the leak that saw those claims aired publicly.
But the key concern has been around the framework for the cultural safety report and specifically the lack of ongoing welfare provided to those interviewed for what was dubbed a welfare check by the club.
Those participants relived significant past trauma through those interviews and remain intent on progressing their claims through the Human Right Commission.
Hawthorn is adamant it played no part in the leaking of its cultural safety report given its determination to elevate it to the league’s integrity department given the claims made against coaches.
McLachlan met with former Hawks president Jeff Kennett last month as the league investigated those claims, with Kennett strongly defending Hawthorn’s position on the night of the AFL deal.
“Gillon McLachlan can’t have his cake and eat it,” Kennett said.
“He can’t on the one hand say it was wrong to find out whether the allegations of the Riolis were widespread or not – and then on finding that there was no substance against any of the three Hawthorn officials – he can’t then say that the club has done anything but the right thing in the interests of a safe workplace.”
The ABC first aired the claims through a series of interviews with First Nations families not long after Hawthorn handed its review to the AFL, with the Herald Sun later publishing the official report and its claims.
Originally published as Hawthorn First Nations inquiry: Club not expected to lose any draft picks
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