AFL: Gillion McLachlan defends handling of Ross Lyon case

AFL chief executive Gillion McLachlan remains adamant the handling of the Ross Lyon matter has been transparent.

Coach Ross Lyon says he is constrained by what he can say about the Dockers’ workplace harassment case.

Despite the lack of public detail surrounding the harassment case involving Fremantle coach Ross Lyon, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan is adamant the handling of the matter has been transparent.

According to McLachlan, this relates to the process associated with those dealing with the complaint, from the complainant to the perpetrator and the bodies that investigated the matter, namely WorkCover and the AFL Integrity Unit.

After months of speculation, it was revealed this week that Lyon was the senior Fremantle official named in a complaint to WorkCover over an inappropriate comment made to a colleague at a Christmas party. It has been reported the woman, who no longer works at Fremantle, received a five-figure payment as part of a confidential settlement.

Both the AFL and the Dockers reacted to the outing of Lyon by releasing a statement that did not identify him.

At a subsequent media conference ahead of the Dockers’ clash with Richmond tomorrow, the Fremantle coach referred repeatedly to the AFL’s Respect and Responsibility Policy when reiterating he was constrained by what he could say. McLachlan was at pains yesterday to stress there is a difference between confidentiality and suppressing information related to cases of workplace harassment.

He said even in cases where the details of the complaint remained private, as occurred in the Lyon matter, he believed there was transparency.

“Public information is different from transparency about the issue and playing it out,” he said.

“There is a transparency in terms of the people actually charged with getting resolution, whether that be the police, the … chief executive or the board who have responsibility for the workplace. It is actually accountability for those in charge of the issue rather than this needing to be in the paper to have process.”

McLachlan said the AFL needed to ensure the victim’s identity was protected and said naming perpetrators “may” put that at risk.

“I think part of that goes back to protecting the confidentiality of the complainant by also making those who the allegations are made against, suppressing or keeping that confidential,” he said.

But he acknowledged that it would be “clearly appropriate and fair” if the complainant in a matter wanted to publicly identify the perpetrator in the matter.

Amid criticism of the league’s policy this week, McLachlan said it was designed by external experts and overseen by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins.

“I have to take their advice. I have to trust the process,” he told 3AW in Melbourne.

Jenkins, who led a review of the league’s policy in 2016, wrote in an opinion piece published by Fairfax Media this week that “we need to stop talking about so-called ‘hush-money’ ”.

She wrote it was “unhelpful and potentially damaging to have daily public reporting of names and individual details of a particular complaint”.

Jenkins wrote that publicity associated with claims was a deterrent for women wanting to make a complaint and that there were no particular concerns associated with payments of money in confidential settlements.

McLachlan, meanwhile, expressed sympathy for retired Collingwood star Dane Swan after a video of him involved in a compromising position with a woman was released on the internet without his permission.