Outgoing Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett says the leaking of racism allegations at the AFL club is “unfair” and he hopes the issue can be resolved by the end of the year.
Kennett said on Saturday night the club was not in crisis and he described the serious allegations as a “bump along the highway”.
Kennett was speaking at the club’s best and fairest awards function. He told the audience he was “somewhat flabbergasted - and worse” when he read the draft report of the club’s internal cultural review examining the experiences of Indigenous players and their partners while at Hawthorn.
That report was handed to the AFL which said it would establish a four-person panel to look at the allegations. Four-time Hawks premiership coach Alastair Clarkson was named in the review detailing historic allegations from some Indigenous players between 2010 and 2016.