Andrew Bolt: Both sides must be heard before we rush to judge Hawthorn

Alastair Clarkson and his team may seem to have been too brutal in chasing success but let’s hear their side before we dance on their heads.

Wait a sec. So far we’ve heard just one side of the story that the ABC claims shows the Hawthorn Football Club has a “racism” problem.

I agree with the AFL’s decision to investigate claims that Hawthorn separated some of its indigenous players from their families and even told one player to get his girlfriend to have an abortion.

These claims, if true and without good justification, suggests a harshness – and contempt for the life of an unborn child – that is ugly, even despicable. One former player claims he was left suicidal.

But let’s first get a few things straight.

No one is forced to become an AFL footballer. It is a choice.

In fact, it is not a choice that most normal people would make because you don’t get that money and fame for nothing. You can’t – not when you’re competing against some of the hungriest, fittest and most ruthless young men in the country.

And so teenaged recruits, some homesick, let themselves be drafted to clubs on the other side of the country.

Some play through great pain. They diet, they’re banned from the booze, they can’t go clubbing and they train until it hurts like hell. Some are warned off bad friends. Some are bawled out.

This is the bottom line.

That doesn’t mean a club should treat players like dirt – or clay that can be moulded into any shape. Often it’s better for the club to work with the player they’ve got.

So what happened at Hawthorn?

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson and his then football operations boss, Chris Fagan, have been accused by players of being cruel. Picture: Colleen Petch

All that we know is what the ABC has reported, having apparently seen an independent report – actually by “First Nations consultants” – commissioned by Hawthorn on the treatment of its Aboriginal players, a report the AFL refuses to release.

The ABC quotes three unidentified players at length, from the more than 20 indigenous players who were with Hawthorn when Alastair Clarkson was a premiership-winning coach, hailed as the best of modern times.

We do not know how typical their complaints are, and we are relying on the reporting of an ABC that has a strong race agenda.

These players and their families accuse Clarkson, his then football operations boss, Chris Fagan, and development manager, Jason Burt, of being cruel.

The players say they were moved out of their homes and had their phone numbers changed to cut ties to their families.

Two said they were told to break off with their girlfriends, and one was even told to make his girlfriend have an abortion.

Clarkson, Fagan and Burt have all refused to tell the ABC their side of the story, but Clarkson later issued a statement saying he was not interviewed for the report and was “shocked’ by the allegations.

He said players’ welfare had always been his top concern and “I refute any allegation of wrongdoing or misconduct”.

Even the ABC has suggested what Clarkson and the others would say, or some of it.

Chris Fagan has taken leave of absence as coach of Brisbane to focus on defending himself. Picture: Getty Images

That is, that they told these players their family contacts and old social circles were holding them back. To succeed, they needed a clean break.

To repeat: this was their choice. Even Aboriginal players make choices. Then there were other details making me wonder what else Clarkson, Fagan and Burt might say in their defence.

For instance, the woman Hawthorn allegedly wanted to have an abortion refused. The boyfriend who Hawthorn allegedly wanted to leave her went back to her. They had the baby.

Yes, there was then an abortion six months later – but it was not one the club asked for, yet is now blamed for.

One girlfriend said she was “affronted” when Clarkson “insisted on visiting one night and offered commentary on the house’s cleanliness”, and said the club was wrong to regard her father as a threat to her boyfriend. Hmm.

So, yes, Clarkson and his team seem from this one-sided account to have been too brutal in chasing success. A success, though, that gave many other players their highest highs.

I’d just like to hear Clarkson, Fagan and Burt give their side before I join the pack that’s dancing on their heads and accusing them of racism. And what racism exactly?

You might argue Hawthorn should have made a special allowance for Aboriginal players, because of their allegedly deeper bonds with family and greater need of support. Yet is it racist to fail to give special treatment because of race?

But when race is dragged in, someone’s got to be a scapegoat. Already, Fagan has taken leave of absence as coach of Brisbane to focus on defending himself.

That makes him already seem guilty, but his club had to cut some ties with him to protect itself, and – as Fagan would know – AFL clubs can indeed demand painful sacrifices to succeed.