HAWKS BEING INVESTIGATED
THE Australian
Football League is investigating “extremely serious” allegations about the treatment of Indigenous former players at 13-times champions Hawthorn.
One of the allegations centres on a player who claimed coaches urged him to have his partner’s pregnancy terminated.
Focus
Citing an independent review commissioned by Hawthorn, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the club’s staff had separated players from their families and controlled communication between them so they would focus on their careers.
The players were not identified in either the review or the ABC report.
One player said some Hawthorn staff urged him to “get rid” of his unborn child and separate from his partner, according to the ABC.
“(They) told me to kill my unborn kid,” the report quoted the player as saying of former Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson.
“I was then manipulated and convinced to remove my SIM card from my phone, so there was no further contact between my family and me.
“They told me I’d be living with one of the other coaches from that night onwards.”
The player said he had made multiple suicide attempts since leaving the Hawks and that the club had broken him “as a man, as a footballer and as a family man”.
McConville was part of the Ray Dempsey ticket that recently lost out to McStay for the Mayo job.
McStay’s backroom team includes former Mayo manager
Stephen Rochford, renowned coach Donie Buckley and Liam McHale.
Armagh All-Ireland winner McConville, who recently took over as Wickow manager, reckons Dempsey’s straighttalking nature would have been the right fit for the Mayo job.
Former All-Ireland finalist Dempsey led Knockmore to back-to-back Mayo senior titles in 2020/21 and is a former Mayo minor manager.
“He (McStay) definitely had a strong line up, I’ll give him that,” McConville told the BBC’s GAA Social Podcast.
“But I think Ray Dempsey would have been a better choice for Mayo, genuinely.
“I found Ray Dempsey very direct, very honest and I don’t think there is enough of them people around any more, especially in management.
“I think he would have been a good fit for them (Mayo).
Experienced
“I think that’s maybe exactly what Mayo need, but lookit, it’s Kevin McStay and he’s got a star-studded backroom team.
“He had put a good package together.”
McConville continued: “The experienced managers I have spoken to have all said about the importance of keeping it (backroom)