Page 13: Are footy world’s vanishing portraits a case of erasing history or welcome refurbishment?

Several sets of bushy, grey eyebrows have been raised across the footy world as portraits of esteemed bigwigs past have vanished from boardrooms and foyers.

Paintings of past leaders and commissioners have recently disappeared from the boardroom at AFL House.

The AFL had a case of the “missing portraits” last year and it seems the same mystery has hit Hawthorn’s Waverley headquarters.

Eyebrows were raised (think bushy, thick grey ones) when paintings of past leaders and commissioners disappeared from the boardroom at AFL House and were replaced by some Indigenous art.

Was it wokeness out of control or as the AFL said at the time, just some refurbishment of the league’s offices.

At Hawthorn, the white-bread male portraits (think the likes of Ian Dicker and Jeff Kennett) adorned the foyer corridor when you arrived at the Hawks Nest.

Two weeks ago the pictures suddenly disappeared.

Now taking pride of place is a large collage of Hawthorn logos and values, incorporating male and female teams with just a smattering of Indigenous art.

Word quickly got out and noses were out of joint with words like “erasing history” being bandied about.

But Page 13 can reveal the pictures are safe and well. They’ve been moved out to sit prominently around the Hawks boardroom table.

“As part of ongoing improvements around our administration facility, the recognition of the Club’s former presidents is currently being relocated from a corridor to a place within the main boardroom,” a Hawthorn football club spokesman clarified.

As for what happened to the AFL portraits, we’re told paintings of former commissioners, such as Mike Fitzpatrick’s, are prominently hung around headquarters while others are gathering dust in storage.