Hawthorn racism review: Andrew Newbold denies sending bombshell emails

Former Hawthorn president and now AFL commissioner Andrew Newbold has offered his explanation for the explosive emails between his address and a former player partner’s.

President Andrew Newbold has been named in the club’s explosive racism Review

A Hawthorn player’s partner claimed that he had been pressured to leave the home they shared, in a desperate email to then-President Andrew Newbold, but her pleas for help were dismissed, according to the club’s explosive racism Review.

But Newbold – now an AFL commissioner – says he never saw the emails and definitely had not responded to them, though could not rule out someone else in the club having done so on his behalf.

Asked on Tuesday night by the Herald Sun about the alleged exchange, Newbold said: “I did not author that email.

“I want to refute that absolutely. It’s not my language I would use.”

According to the Hawthorn-commissioned review of the club’s handling of Indigenous players and their families between 2010 and 2016, the woman wrote in an email to Newbold that at seven weeks pregnant, senior Hawks trio Alastair Clarkson, Chris Fagan and Jason Burt had come to their home and removed the player with only a few belongings.

They also changed his phone number so his “trapped” partner could not contact him, she claimed in the email.

She approached Victoria Police in the wake of the incident when she could not contact her partner, but officers were unable to contact any Hawthorn staff members, she alleged to Newbold.

SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE EMAILS

The player’s partner went on to tell the then-club president in another email that she was experiencing “severe anxiety attacks”, “vomiting blood” and “can’t see the light anymore”, amid her stress over the situation.

An email identified in the report as being from Newbold responded that it was “not appropriate” that he become involved.

“I have spoken to Jason who is familiar with the facts as I am not,” the report detailed Newbold as writing on Monday, March 25, 2013.

“Your issues are really beyond my scope of expertise and influence. I’m sorry but it is not really appropriate that I become involved.”

Newbold last week took a leave of absence from his position on the AFL commission, as the league launched an independent investigation into the treatment of First Nations players at Hawthorn.

Emails contained in the Cultural Safety Review – commissioned earlier this year – show that woman wrote, in more than 2500 words, to Newbold that club figures had questioned the pair’s engagement, and that “they are going to remove him from the situation”.

“I think the way this has been handled is so disgraceful. How could any person with a heart think that it would be okay to do this to any person, let alone someone who is 7 weeks pregnant,” she wrote to the president.

“I feel like me and this baby have been treated with such disrespect and ruthlessness by the club.

“I would hate to think that as the man in charge of a club who proudly recognizes themselves as a family club that you would find this situation and their behaviour acceptable.”

The emails in the report begin on March 21, 2013 and are labelled in the subject line as being in relation to “welfare” and “Urgent!”.

In one she claimed that despite being with the player since the pair were both 13, the club forced their separation and left him “quite distressed and upset” by questioning their engagement.

Their separation allegedly came just days before their planned engagement party that almost 100 people had been set to attend.

“(The player) stood by the door in a state I’d never seen him in, he looked dead inside,” the player’s partner reportedly wrote to Newbold on March 21, 2013 in detailing their separation.

“It was at that point I became severely concerned for his wellbeing and emotional state.”

She said that her doctor had noted the potential effects on the unborn baby and the fact that she had lost 7kg “because of the distress”.

The emails appear to show that Newbold offered to meet the player’s partner at the club but she did not feel comfortable and stated her wish to meet off-site.

On Friday, March 22, she emailed Newbold again, saying that she had met with an AFLPA psychologist, and that she was “still really keen to catch up”.

She wrote a further email on Monday, March 25, 2013, detailing her declining mental state.

“I have nobody to turn to for answers and I’m not sure what to do,” the player’s partner wrote.

“I feel like I’m in such a helpless situation and can’t see the light anymore.

“I’ve turned in every direction for help but I have no avenues to take. I don’t know what more I can do, I’m falling apart and just feel like I can’t keep going anymore.

“I need to have answers as to what to do and I don’t know where to turn to get those answers anymore.”

SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE EMAILS

In additional comments made to the Herald Sun on Tuesday night, Newbold said: “Those emails as I understand it went to my hawthornfc address, which I had no access to.

“I haven’t seen them, I don’t know who they are from. I haven’t seen the report, which is appropriate.

“I’m told there is an email around 23 May, I have checked personal email box and I have no emails form any complaints on 23 May 2013.’’

Told it was in March, he said: “Whatever, I’ve checked. I did not write that email.

“That is not my style for a start. It’s not how I would’ve responded, I would’ve said go to the welfare person.

“I will tell you how it works, people would email me at hawthornfc and the media girl, for example, would sometimes ring me and say ‘We’ve had a question from such and such, how do you want them to respond?’ I’d tell her, give them my number and get them to call me.

“Or, say, a member rang up and said we’re really unhappy about such and such and that went to the membership department, and they’d say, I think you ought to respond to this.

“I’d say Ok, draft a response and send it through.”

Asked if it was possible someone responded under his name and did not okay it with him, he said: “Don’t know I haven’t seen it. I did not have access to that email address.

“To put it in context, not even the players had my email address. I did not receive one email from a player on the Hawthorn list for the whole time I was president and I certainly did not know (about ) a player’s personal life.

“It paints me in a certain light which is not the case. It’s not how I deal with people. The other thing is, why would I send an email like that from my Iphone?”

Originally published as Hawthorn racism review: Andrew Newbold denies sending bombshell emails