Hawk greats Dermott Brereton and Don Scott hit out at delay of Jeff Kennett’s life membership

Hawthorn legends including Dermott Brereton have slammed the club for the delay of awarding former president Jeff Kennett his life membership.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – NewsWire Photos NOVEMBER 26, 2020: Hawthorn President Jeff Kennett at the launch of the Hawthorn AFL club's new facilities at Dingley Village in Melbourne's outer southeast. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Hawthorn greats have accused the club of “pettiness”, “hypocrisy” and “incompetence” for suspending former president Jeff Kennett’s life membership award amid fallout from footy’s bitter racism affair.

Dermott Brereton described the Hawks’ controversial call as “thoroughly disappointing” while Don Scott said it was “just the tip of the iceberg of what is going on down there”.

It came after the Herald Sun revealed on Tuesday that Hawks boss Andy Gowers had informed Kennett the board would not be presenting him the honour at next month’s annual general meeting.

Kennett slammed the decision, saying: “It’s immature. I’m not interested in personal recognition – never have been – but the awarding of life membership is within our constitution after 10 years’ service ... but they haven’t got the courage to present it.”

Five-time Hawthorn premiership legend Brereton said: “As a club we have bigger things to think about than holding off someone’s life membership.

Jeff Kennett (right) with Hawks young gun Josh Ward. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“I got the feeling that some of the motivation of some people coming onto the board had a political agenda to it. This is a person who did a great job on the board, went away and then the board begged him to come back and he came back for the better of the club - and now some people are trying to rewrite the second part of that history.”

Brereton served briefly under Kennett on the Hawks board during his first stint as president.

“I was ambivalent about his leadership. I did not hold a view one way or another but by the end of those six months he had won me over,” he said.

“There are two avenues they could have taken here. One is to go ahead with it and the other is not to go ahead with it. The easier plotted path would be to go ahead with it - I don’t know why they have done this.”

Scott said he was deeply concerned about the direction of the club, adding: “You mightn’t agree with Kennett but he’s served his time and qualified for life membership.

“This is the pettiness of Gowers, who was sacked off the board by Kennett (in 2017).

“Collectively, this current board is the most incompetent and hypocritical in our history.

“They promise one thing and do exactly the opposite in regards to governance, transparency and inclusion - and if there’s no integrity at the top it filters down.”

Scott, a three-time premiership great who famously saved the Hawks from a proposed merger with Melbourne in 1996, said he suspected the activist supporter group Hawks for Change was behind the Kennett snub.

“I sat in a meeting earlier this year where Hawks for Change were very vocal in a forum run by Gowers where they suggested things would have to be run past them,” Scott said.

Kennett’s successor Andy Gowers with coach Sam Mitchell. Picture: Michael Klein

Kennett was told it would be “inappropriate” to bestow the award “at this time” because of the ongoing racism investigation controversy, he said.

The former Victorian premier spoke out last month after it was revealed the Hawks were considering making compensation payouts to all affected parties, despite the AFL shutting down its probe into historic claims of racism at the club without reaching any conclusions.

Kennett served 11 seasons across two stints as Hawthorn president before retiring at the end of last season, triggering life membership status.

Gowers was Hawthorn’s football director at the time of some of the alleged racial incidents at the Hawks.

“So he’s applying a different standard to me than he is to himself,” Kennett said.

Gowers said in a statement: “In line with the club’s constitution, the board has formally endorsed former president Jeff Kennett being awarded life membership. His contribution to the club over a number of years is significant.

“However, given the club’s legal matters, a decision was made to postpone presenting the life membership until those matters are concluded.”

Kennett’s initial term as president beginning in 2005 secured a flag in 2008 and laid the foundations for three more premierships in 2013, 2014 and 2015. He returned for a second term in 2017.

Hawks members have also questioned the board’s decision to shift the staging of the AGM from its traditional home at the Hawthorn Town Hall to the club’s Waverley training centre, which is not serviced by public transport.

Jeff Kennett served as Hawks president for 11 seasons across two stints. Picture: Jason Edwards

“This has been done to avoid scrutiny of the board’s lack of action and failings over the last year,” Kennett said.

“At a time after Covid when everyone else is opening up and encouraging member involvement, the Hawthorn Football Club is actually closing down.

“Andy Gowers was elected on a platform of greater transparency and better governance – and he is clearly failing on both.”

Despite making no adverse findings in its racism investigation, the AFL has left the door open for Hawthorn to be punished, including the imposing of heavy financial sanctions, for its handling of the First Nations scandal.

Compensation payouts to affected parties – including retired indigenous players and former Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson – have been floated as a way to alleviate an AFL fine, a move Kennett last month said would be an “abject disgrace”.

“Hawthorn did what any responsible workplace should do when workplace behaviours are questioned,” Kennett said.

“We did not bring the game into disrepute in any way whatsoever – we actually simply tried to establish the truth – and the truth finding exercise was hijacked by the families that went public,” Kennett said.

The league accepts that the club’s cultural safety review was launched with good intentions but was privately critical of the commissioning and policing of the Binmada report, which was leaked to the media in grand final week last year, igniting the crisis.

Originally published as Hawk greats Dermott Brereton and Don Scott hit out at delay of Jeff Kennett’s life membership