Hawk’s fury at Jeff’s return
HAWTHORN great Don Scott has lashed Jeff Kennett’s presidential comeback and refused to rule out instigating a challenge.
Scott, who founded the 1996 “Operation Payback” campaign that saved the Hawks from a merger with Melbourne, said the club again needed saving.
“You can’t turn passion off,” Scott said. “It’s a stupid passion when you get involved with football clubs, but they ask you for it when you play the game. Hawthorn demanded it and they got it.”
Scott said former teammate and life member Bruce Stevenson, 68, had “all the qualifications” to be president.
Stevenson quit the board last week because of a rumoured frustration with Richard Garvey, who has resigned as president over the Tracey Gaudry debacle.
Asked if he would allow Kennett to assume the presidency without a challenge, Scott said: “I don’t know, you just wonder. It’s been two hours, how can I say what’s going to happen?
“His [Kennett’s] persona does not appeal to me at all.
“He’s a political animal. I wonder about his motives. A lot of people are self-effacing, I don’t think he’s self-effacing. At one stage he was going to be president of Melbourne.
“I find it staggering, really staggering. Is he trying to grab headlines? Promote himself? He might have a problem in the ego stakes.
“I didn’t see him around when Hawthorn was really up the creek.”
Scott, a decorated and aggressive 302-game ruckman, led the Hawks to two premierships as captain, was named in Hawthorn’s team of the century and is in the AFL Hall of Fame. He said the Hawthorn board had lost its way.
“Wins cover a multitude of sins, it covers a lot of problems behind the scenes,” Scott said.
“People who taught me the culture of the place when I was playing would be turning in their graves.”