AFL’s diversionary tactics on show after farcical racism probe conclusion

When Gill McLachlan faced off for a round of tummy ticklers with Neil Mitchell, he didn’t waste a second taking the focus off the AFL’s farcical conclusion to the Hawks racism investigation.

Gillon McLachlan spoke about the leaking of the Hawthorn report last week. Picture: Getty Images

In football, nothing works quite like a diversionary tactic.

When AFL supremo Gillon McLachlan faced off for another round of tummy ticklers with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell on Friday, he didn’t waste a second taking the focus off the league’s farcical conclusion to the Hawthorn racism investigation.

Asked by Mitchell if the league was “satisfied” with where the probe had landed, McLachlan declared: “Once that report was leaked … it was always going to be an incredibly difficult situation to get to the bottom of”.

Told by Mitchell that “it does still feel painful for everybody”, McLachlan added: “I think that comes from how this came out. The way it leaked put everyone in a more vulnerable position … it was always going to be a bit like this.”

He went on to reveal that the AFL was still “asking questions” about who leaked the Hawthorn cultural safety report to the ABC last year “because I think it’s sort of caused a lot of angst and a lot of pain”.

It made for a great headline – and there’s no doubt the devastating, and perfectly timed, leak in grand final week last year was the catalyst for the crisis – but it has absolutely nothing to do with the manner in which the eight-month AFL investigation has been resolved.

Gillon McLachlan’s diversionary tactics were on display last week. Picture: Getty Images

McLachlan would know, of course, that the prospect of finding the source of the leak is next to zero.

And if he suspects, like many, that the leaker is somehow connected to the First Nations families involved, he would also know that the AFL has zero capacity to examine their emails or phone records.

That’s not going to happen because those people are not bound by the AFL’s rules – there’s no obligation like there was in the Essendon debacle to turn up and co-operate.

So, it’s literally a meaningless issue. Another McLachlan mirage.

And what if the league did find out who-dunnit anyway?

What difference would it make to the actual contents of the report or to the fact that no actual findings have ever been made public – or were even reached at all?

Two weeks ago, when unveiling his “imperfect resolution” to the league’s independent panel probe at a late-night press conference, McLachlan masterfully dropped in that it was the Hawks who remained firmly in the gun over their handling of its review into historic claims of racism at the club.

Gillon McLachlan at the AFL’s Hawthorn findings announcement. Picture: Getty Images

“Look over there at Hawthorn – they are the real villains,” he might as well have said.

But McLachlan is now silent on that, probably because he knows it won’t float – and so now it’s the leak.

What’s next in the AFL’s big bag of diversionary tricks after a botched racism probe – a new theory on the Kennedy assassination?

In his exchange with Mitchell on Friday, McLachlan added that the Indigenous families at the centre of the scandal were “parties to the agreement and happy with the process”.

The first part is right, but the jury’s still out on the second bit.

And unlike the litany of laughable resolutions to other AFL integrity investigations over the years (“I actually don’t know what the definition of tanking is”) this one could yet have a long way to run.