Collingwood announced this week they hadappointed 12 people to sit on an expert panel, which will report to the Magpies board and a strategic adviser in helping the club implement the 18 recommendations from the Do Better report.Current players and past players have made public apologies to anyone who felt discriminated against.

Lumumba said such steps forward were not reason enough,however,for anyone to be comfortable about the situation andCollingwood was far from the only organisation where systemic racism existed.

“Quite often a lot of people want to sit there and pat themselves on the back for certain things but it is easy to pat yourself on the back when you are not the one that has a foot on your throat,” Lumumba said.

He said he was grateful other players had come forward to convey their experiences with the co-authors of the report,saying the Magpies should welcome people talking about their time at the club.

However,he told Thorpe he doubted many of theindustry’s leaders really valued anti-racism withlast year’s vaccination debacle,which saw the AFL making an immediate public apology,an indication that systemic issues remained.