Luke Hodge and Alastair Clarkson lift the 2014 premiership cup.Credit:Justin McManus
“The AFL would have to refer it to us and then the parties – the athletes,the club and the individuals who have been named – would need to agree for it to be arbitrated within the NST,” Boultbee said on Monday.
“Absolutely,we are there to do that sort of stuff,but it is dependent on the parties involved wanting us to do it.”
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The AFL is close to finalising its own four-person panel to investigate claims by the former Hawthorn footballers contained in a report commissioned by the club into the experiences of Indigenous past players. As previously revealed byThe Age,the former players arereluctant to co-operate with any process which is not entirely independent of the AFL.
Under the AFL’s preferred process currently being established by lawyer and former Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon,any findings of the investigation panel would probably be referred back to the AFL Commission to determine whether the actions of any former Hawthorn employees had brought the game into disrepute.
A lawyer acting for four former Hawthorn players,Arnold Bloch Leibler partner Leon Zwier,ispushing for a process with greater separation from AFL House. Sources familiar with the matter say the players want to testify under oath and are prepared to be cross-examined about their experiences at the club,provided this can be done within a jurisdiction other than one controlled by the AFL.
Amid this impasse,the National Sports Tribunal has emerged as a potential way through. Boultbee,a former director of the Australian Insitute of Sport,said the tribunal had 80 arbitrators on its books,including two with Indigenous backgrounds,from which a three-person panel could be selected.