Damning revelations of a discriminatory culture of racism within the Hawthorn AFL club, in past times, which has just claimed the scalp of present day Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan, is an abomination and is not only criminal in essence but completely betrays every aspect of decency and humanity which any organisation in existence, not just a club in the AFL, that purports to respect and uphold "human rights", would never in a million years ever allow to gain even as much as a toe print in the front door.
The revelations, which are to be the subject of an AFL inquiry, are absolutely abhorrent in nature.
One must wonder why given the gravity of one particularly damning allegation, that being that an attempt was made to bully and pressure a First Nations Australian player from Hawthorn to coherse his partner to have an abortion, why this entire scandal is not the subject of a Victorian Police investigation as well. It should be.
Besides being racist and unlawful at least in principle, what certain people associated to the Hawthorn club, past and present, have been accused of, is heartless, callous, nasty and malicious. You just don't treat another human being that way, whether you coach footy or drive trucks. It's just not on.
Undoubtedly, racism in the AFL is not just limited to what has been leveled at Hawthorn and its coaching staff, past and present.
Racially motivated marginalisation of First Nation Australian players, be it in a much "milder form" than what Hawthorn has been accused of, is occurring in a number of AFL clubs and for that matter, a few NRL clubs as well. It's been going on for years, under everyone's noses.
When coaches and their staff allow it to take root and don't nip it in the bud, and when their CEO turns a blind eye to it, that's when the most elemental racism and discrimination within any football club is bound to go from bad to much worse.
Coaches are the first line of defence within their fraternity to weed out anything even remotely leaning towards racism. Obviously in times past something went eerily wrong at Hawthorn.
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