Inside footy’s biggest – and messiest – racism scandal: The leak, panel and 240 days that broke Alastair Clarkson

The fuse for the Hawthorn racism scandal was lit on April 2 last year – so what really happened in the time before news of the external review became public in September? Find out here.

Inside the Hawthorn investigation.

The fuse for footy’s biggest – and messiest – racism scandal was lit on April 2 last year.

Cyril Rioli, four years retired, and wife Shannyn went public with claims of racist incidents they said had fractured their relationship with the Hawthorn Football Club.

The headline allegation was that president Jeff Kennett had ridiculed Shannyn during a 2018 exchange at Launceston Airport where he commented on her ripped designer jeans – and offered some loose change to help sew them up.

The Riolis detailed a second incident during an end-of-season trip to Bali in 2013 where an unnamed senior Hawks player asked teammates whether the partner of one of his Indigenous teammates was “also a boong”.

Michael Long, Rioli’s uncle, spoke up a few days after the allegations were aired, declaring that his nephew had lost his way and needed help.

But Hawthorn – and Kennett- took the claims seriously.

A board meeting was convened on April 8 where the club’s directors agreed to commission a review into the treatment of past and current indigenous players.

A sub-committee of Hawthorn’s people and culture committee, chaired by board member Ian Silk, explored options for the review before former Richmond player and indigenous consultant Phil Egan was appointed to lead the process on May 19.

Alastair Clarkson and Chris Fagan while at the Hawks in 2014. Picture: AFL Media

The Egan review was hardly a secret within the football industry.

In August, the club publicly confirmed it had “engaged external First Nations experts to communicate and engage with former players and staff” in the wake of the Rioli allegations.

On September 2, Egan advised Hawthorn chief executive Justin Reeves that he was in the process of finalising his review.

Two days later, he emailed Reeves a draft version of his report, which was presented to the Hawthorn board at Kennett’s Cremorne office on the morning of September 4.

The board was “shocked” and “horrified” by the findings and agreed that the report needed to be handed to the AFL integrity unit.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 7, Reeves received Egan’s final report by email, which was distributed to Hawthorn board members with protected passwords at 4.18pm and just before 9am on September 8 – barely 17 hours after the club had formally received the report – acting-president Peter Nankivell contacted AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon and advised of a matter the club wished to refer to the AFL integrity department regarding First Nations players.

A meeting between the AFL and Hawthorn was scheduled for the morning of September 13 but on Sunday, September 11 the AFL informed the Hawks there was “a lot of chatter” surrounding the club.

That evening, Dillon drove to Reeves’ home in Richmond where he read a copy of Egan’s “Cultural Safety Review”.

Two days later, in the CBD office of Hawthorn’s law firm, Dillon and AFL integrity unit head Tony Keane met with club officials and were handed an envelope containing the full and unredacted version of the Egan report.

Alastair Clarkson stepped away from coaching this week to focus on his mental health. Picture: Getty Images

Hawthorn chiefs insist the AFL was “kept informed at all times” and that the board’s intention was always to hand the findings of Egan’s “truth-telling” report to the AFL integrity unit for investigation, where the three accused officials – Alastair Clarkson, Chris Fagan and Jason Burt – would be given their right of reply.

But the process turned on its head on September 19 when ABC national sports editor James Coventry emailed Hawthorn a series of questions about the Egan report, requesting answers by 1pm the next day.

Just before 5am on September 21, the ABC published a story based on “an external review commissioned by the Hawthorn Football Club” revealing allegations key figures at the club had “demanded the separation of young First Nations players from their partners, and pressured one couple to terminate a pregnancy for the sake of the player’s career”.

Clarkson, Fagan and Burt have strongly denied all allegations.

The Hawthorn racism review had exploded into the public domain, prompting the AFL to announce the establishment of an independent panel to investigate the claims that afternoon.

On October 4, league boss Gillon McLachlan declared he was “optimistic” the review would be completed by Christmas, but it was wishful thinking.

Within days of the establishment of the panel, the process had become a lawyers picnic.

Jeff Kennett and Alastair Clarkson in 2018. Picture: Getty Images

As Kennett said last week, “you have lawyers representing the AFL, the club, the players who have made the accusations, those who have been accused – and now you have lawyers appointed by the four-man inquiry panel and lawyers appointed to handle the mediation.”

Behind the scenes, almost all parties concede the eight-month AFL panel process is dead in the water, leaving mediation as the league’s last-ditch chance to reach a negotiated outcome.

Clarkson last week launched a scathing attack on the credibility of the investigation and took aim at his old club before announcing he was taking indefinite leave from the game.

“There’s one particular party out there that was the catalyst for all this, that haven’t been investigated at all — their governance and conduct in this whole thing, the Hawthorn Football Club, just shameful,” Clarkson said.

But the Hawks maintain they acted appropriately by commissioning a report in the weeks after the Riolis spoke up and notified the AFL almost immediately after the handing down of the Egan report.

The game changer came three days before last year’s Grand Final when the ABC published the untested racism allegations and the fuse that Cyril lit set off a nuclear bomb.