Apologies for the long post but I feel that some of us are getting ahead of ourselves with this extremely complicated matter.
No one “wins” with this issue. Not the AFL, Hawthorn, the accusers (victims?) and, possibly, the defendants (victims?). While it’s clearly an investigation that we have to have given the seriousness of the allegations, everyone (the innocent, the guilty, the bystander) is scarred in some way.
For the sake of full disclosure (and I’m uncomfortable going into this space) I used to manage a complaints and conduct “integrity” unit that looked after 85,000 potential clients within our organisation (no, I’m not a baker!). Situations such as this are unfortunately not uncommon to me. While I wish there were easy processes that arrive at fair outcomes in every case, that isn’t the real world. Anyone who suggests that dealing this complex issue is a straight forward matter is being naive and simplistic. No matter what action was taken after (and before) the allegations came to light there would be a contrary view. It’s a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Respond too fast, respond to slow. Participate or don’t participate. Defend or don’t defend. Pick this investigator, pick that investigator. He said, she said, they said. Etc etc.
Most (all?) of us outsiders have no idea of the facts at this stage but many still feel they know enough to pass judgment, which in most cases seems to be based on preconceived views of the various parties that are involved without any real knowledge of what occurred. We’ve only really heard one side of the issue (which I’m not for one second wishing to diminish, far from it, they are extremely disturbing allegations and should be taken very seriously, and if the coaches are guilty I hope they are severely dealt with in the most significant manner possible) but we can’t base our views on hearing one side, regardless of how compelling it is.
I don’t know what happened and very few, if any, of us do. At this stage I don’t know who to believe even though I might want to suggest the most likely scenario based on life experience and observations, but that doesn’t mean it applies to this case. One side of this sad situation may be more likely to be telling the truth, but we simply don’t know at this stage. Projecting our views at this time is speculation, not fact.
It would be nice to think that the truth will come out given the KC’s that are involved, but that might be wishful thinking. Either way I hope some good comes out if this for the sake of future indigenous players in the AFL and the broader community’s awareness of racism in, and outside of, sport.
