COLLINGWOOD VOWS TO TACKLE RACISM HEAD-ON

COLLINGWOOD has vowed to implement all 18 recommendations from an explosive report that found the club needed to address a history of “systemic racism”.

President Eddie McGuire on Monday said the club “commissioned this report not to pay lip services to a worldwide tragedy, but to lay the foundations for our game, our people and our community”.

Indigenous Collingwood board member Jodie Sizer, who sat alongside McGuire at yesterday’s press conference, said the 35-page Do Better review “puts Collingwood in possession of an opportunity to reshape its future as a leader in Australian sport”.

“Racism and how we respond to it, when it occurs, is one of the most significant and prevalent challenges of our time,” Sizer said.

“There is a not a workplace in the country that should not be having this conversation, and ... our ambition is to lead by example.”

The report, first aired by News Corp on Monday, found “one question that was often posed was why this review was only looking at the Collingwood Football Club”.

“The issues being looked at were relevant to the whole of the AFL,” the report said.

“While accepting that an AFL club is part of a larger ecosystem, that does not mean that individual clubs cannot also be proactive about leading change.

“Often, co-ordinated topdown, bottom-up approaches can produce the best results.”

League boss Gillon McLachlan said that the AFL would now review the report findings and “consider what else we can and should do as the governing body”.

Tanya Hosch, the AFL’s executive general manager of social policy and inclusion, said: “We will continue to strengthen our commitment to confront, understand and fight racism and discrimination, on and off the field.”