North Melbourne legend Phil Krakouer leads landmark racism class action against AFL

North Melbourne great Phil Krakouer will lead the charge in the landmark racism class action against the AFL, with several former players claiming the league failed to protect them.

Footy legend and former Kangaroos star Phil Krakouer will be the lead plaintiff in the landmark racism class action against the AFL.

Trailblazing former North Melbourne and Footscray player Phil Krakouer will be the lead plaintiff in a landmark class action which will allege endemic historic racial mistreatment of former AFL and VFL players.

Documents filed in the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday afternoon allege the AFL failed to protect it’s former players from vile racial abuse, with life-altering consequences.

The case comes a fortnight ahead of the AFL Grand Final and a month out from the vote for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

It is also just days after Mr Krakouer was inducted into the West Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Kangaroos legend Phil Krakouer is leading the class action against the AFL.

Six other former players are also part of the class action, which is open to every former AFL and VFL player who suffered racial abuse between 1975 and 2022.

The players who are part of the class action say they suffered extreme racial abuse that left them with permanent trauma.

They are speaking out now because they want the abuse to stop and for the game to be better in the future.

Melbourne law firm Margalit Injury Lawyers, which running a separate concussion class action against the league, is acting on behalf of the players.

Margalit Injury Lawyers managing principal Michel Margalit said the AFL knew or ought to have known of the immediate and long-term adverse consequences of experiencing racial vilification, both physical and verbal, on the players.

She said the players had approached Margalit Injury Lawyers to take on their case and believed many more will join.

Phil Krakouer (right), with brother Jim, said the AFL allowed indigenous people to be abused and traumatised.

Krakouer playing for Footscray, in a clash against Sydney, in 1991. He announced his retirement that year.

In a football career spanning almost a decade Mr Krakouer played 141 games with North Melbourne and seven for Footscray before he retired in 1991.

He still lives in Melbourne.

Before moving to Victoria to play football he was a champion in the local league representing Western Australia four times and was a member of the Claremont’s 1981 WAFL premiership team.

“This case means we are finally being heard. Racism has been swept under the carpet for too long,” Mr Krakouer said.

“For decades Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people of colour have been racially abused while playing AFL, and we feel the AFL sat back and watched it all go by.”

He said he was young, naive and full of dreams when he move to Victoria to play in the “big league”.

“I was hoping that great things were going to happen. It was a professional sport and the AFL allowed us to be abused and traumatised,” Mr Krakouer said.

“We signed up to play football, not to be racially abused. Racism is not part of the game. It goes so far beyond sledging.”

Ms Margalit said the class action was lodged on behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and/or people of colour who played football or were employed or engaged by the VFL and AFL between 1975 and 2022.

Lawyer Michel Margalit said not enough had been done for players. Picture: Mark Stewart

She says 1975 is significant as it represents when the Racial Discrimination Act was enacted making racism unlawful in Australia.

“The racial abuse suffered by players was extreme,” she said.

“Not just words, but repugnant physical acts such as spitting and violence.

“The AFL was aware of this racial abuse and, as the keeper of the code, failed to take decisive action to protect players.”

Ms Margalit said playing professional football came at the costs of being subjected to the most unacceptable racial abuse.

Phil (left) and Jim Krakouer.

“On the football field, our clients were unable to walk away, and unable to retaliate.

“Racial vilification is not sledging.

“The damage and hurt runs so much deeper, and our clients have been left with permanent trauma as a result.”

She said while the AFL had taken steps to address racism in the present, not enough had been done for players who were part of the game in the past.

Mr Krakouer said he and others had been deeply affected by not only the comments that were made, but the lack of support from the AFL that made it worse.

“We want our experience to be validated by the AFL,” he said.

“We don’t want to feel like victims anymore. All we were doing was playing footy,” he said.

“The AFL had the power to stop it, and they have the power to stop it ever happening again.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it. They have to make sure this never occurs again, for everyone. You can’t improve present and the future without addressing the past. I want to ensure the game is better than when I played.”

An AFL spokesperson said they “had not been served with any documents or been provided with any information regarding a class action”.

“If any formal correspondence is served on us we will review it.”