MAGPIES LOOKING INTO LUMUMBA CLAIMS
COLLINGWOOD is looking into claims that an assistant coach showed players a pornographic image during a 2014 team meeting.
But the Magpies have stopped short of saying they have launched an official investigation into the claims made by former player Heritier Lumumba.
In an explosive document, published by News Corp on Monday, Lumumba detailed a series of misconduct claims against club figures, including the use of an explicitly inappropriate image by an assistant coach.
“An assistant coach showed a pornographic image during a team meeting to emphasise a point that he was making,” Lumumba says in the dossier.
“One of the team rules was to ‘come forward’, so he showed an image of a group of about five or more men ejaculating on a woman’s face with the words ‘come forward’ as a caption.
“Nathan Buckley was the head coach and seemed unfazed by it all.”
The 2010 premiership player had wanted to present the document to Collingwood as part of a Do Better report truth-telling process but withdrew from formal talks with the Magpies last month, declaring that the club “cannot be trusted to pursue genuine reconciliation with its past”.
Lumumba announced on social media last month that he and Indigenous players Andrew Krakouer and Leon Davis had all stopped communications with Collingwood.
Magpies chief executive
Mark Anderson released a statement on Monday saying the club still knew it had a way to go in the fight against racism.
“We remain committed to, and hopeful of, a genuine outcome for any and all players who have been subject to racism at our club,” he said. “The review gave us confidence that we are on the right track, and the whole club at every level is committed to doing better.”