Hawthorn racism saga: North Melbourne to ask for soft cap exemption for full-time Ratten

North Melbourne are set to formally ask the AFL for some extra room in the football department to cover for the absence of Alastair Clarkson. See the details here.

MELBOURNE, MAY 18, 2023: Brett Ratten takes North Melbourne training as Alastair Clarkson takes a leave of absence. Picture: Mark Stewart

North Melbourne will formally ask the AFL for extra room in the football department soft cap as it factors in the full-time salary of interim coach Brett Ratten.

Ratten was happy to fill in for Alastair Clarkson when the senior coach took time away from the club for wellbeing issues and on Sunday coaches Essendon in his third game in a row.

The Roos are keen for Clarkson to take as much time as he needs and are not preparing for him to be back in the short-term future.

While he will not face any sanction from the AFL after the abolition of the Hawthorn First Nations inquiry he will now face forced mediation with four families as part of a Human Rights Commission case.

Kangaroos head coach Alastair Clarkson (L) chats with Kangaroos assistant coach Brett Ratten. Picture: Getty Images

It means Ratten will be the coach for the foreseeable future, having elevated his role from two days a week plus a match-day involvement.

Typical of Ratten’s selfless nature, he has made no extra demands of North Melbourne.

But after discussions with the league about some kind of exemption under the AFL’s football department soft cap, formal talks will now take place.

The Roos still have some room in their soft cap but if they could exempt part of Clarkson’s salary it would allow them to reward Ratten for his extra time at the club.

While Clarkson is well paid the Roos have a well-stocked football department with Ratten lauding the work of development coaches Tom Lynch (also the VFL coach), Gavin Brown, Brent Harvey and Emma Kearney this week.

President Sonja Hood said this week the club wanted Clarkson to take as much time as he needed.

“For now, he will remain away from the club as he looks to get his own physical and mental health in order. We’re happy for him to take as much time away as he feels is necessary,” she said.

Ratten has taken over from Clarkson full-time. Picture: Getty Images

According to premiership captain Luke Hodge, Clarkson is prepared to attend mediation at the Human Rights Commission.

But it could take up to two years for the case to proceed to that level.

“The hard part is you can’t go to mediation unless you know all the information said about you,” Hodge said.

“You want to go there with clarity of what am I accused of? So you can have open conversations about it. Talking to the three guys they want to go and chat to these guys and talk about it but they haven’t been able to because of the confidentiality, because the information (from Hawthorn) wasn’t passed on. They are open to telling their story and trying to working this out because its gone on for all parties and their families and there is no doubt they are all hurting from it.”

Hodge said Hawthorn was clearly at fault for handing on a cultural safety review to the AFL without going to Jason Burt, Clarkson and Chris Fagan.

He told SEN Hawthorn “sat on their hands” with the review for too long until it leaked out.

“The idea of trying to do a cultural review? No problems. You try to make the place better for everyone who walks in your doors. Once you get the information how do you handle it? That’s the part where you scratch your head and think they were so far off the mark in that area.”