Collingwood’s 150 footballers and netballers released a letter of apology on Thursday night in the wake of the leaking of the report into racism earlier in the week.
The club’s ‘Do Better’ report found the club guilty of ‘systemic racism’, with the issue inflamed further by club president Eddie McGuire’s press conference the next day, where he declared it a “proud” and “historic” day for the football club.
The athletes of the Magpies felt they needed to release a statement of their own, which reads as follows:
A statement from our athletes.
— Collingwood FC (@CollingwoodFC) February 4, 2021
The following letter has been written by the 150 footballers and netballers of Collingwood. pic.twitter.com/m6U0H3MooV
Collingwood star Darcy Moore said the playing groups all felt like something needed to be said.
“We put our heads together and we were absolutely in agreement with how we felt about the contents of the report and what it had to say about our club and our club’s history,” Moore told SEN’s Bob and Andy.
“We decided to put our heads together and write a letter to the public and say we need to do more and we are going to acknowledge our history.
“I can personally hand on heart guarantee that every word of this letter had been written by athletes at the Collingwood Football Club.
“It has been a difficult few days for us to digest, but I can personally guarantee that we put our feelings into words and that’s what everyone is reading right now.”
Moore however stated the apology was not in response to McGuire’s controversial press conference.
“This message is not about anything other than the issue at hand, which is the fact that a distinguished professor has published a report saying that our club historically has a problem with systemic racism,” Moore said.
“That’s why we have written what we have written. There is no other reason other than to say we acknowledge this history, we are going to take a good hard honest look at it and we are going to move forward.
“It has been well publicised how the press conference was received but, as I said, the purpose of this letter is about nothing more than the contents of that report.
‘It’s not about individuals, it’s not about personalities or anything else. It’s about what the report had to say and about us making our club better in the future.”
Moore said the players would ensure that the club as a whole followed the recommendations of the report.
“But it also means that the contents of this report has certain recommendations in it, all of which have been accepted by the authority figures at the Collingwood Football Club,” he said.
“We are going to use our voices to ensure that within the club, these actions are followed through with and that we are a part of this process.
“We’re not going to sit back and just let others take control, we are going to use our voice to make sure that this never happens again and we make it a better club in the future.
“We are not administrators, we are not strategists, we’re not pencil pushers, we are athletes and we have got a voice and we are going to make sure that the future makes for better reading than what that report did.”