People will disappoint you.
And what a disappointing day yesterday proved.
In the face of the disturbing and distressing revelations contained in Eddie Betts’ book, those who might’ve been brave enough to step forward driven by their conscience largely failed to do so.
I drove home via the local bookshop, picked up the autobiography, and then read for hours. It’s the harrowing 20 pages of Chapter 17 that are inescapable.
The violation of basic humanity in the name of sport. The toxic masculinity. The cultural insensitivity. The breach of trust. The unsafe workplace. The coercion, intimidation, manipulation and abuse.
Events well known by those charged to investigate over the course of four years.
What’s the saying about the standard you walk past… there was a lot of walking past, eyes down yesterday.
The AFL’s statement was a miserable failure.
It took 28 words to acknowledge the hurt Eddie Betts experienced.
And 177 words of pathetic self-justification of all the good the League has done and no-one put their name to it. No sorrow, no regret, no commitment to action.
The acknowledgement was deliberately narrow … only to the indigenous players who were subjected to the camp.
But as Betts pointed out it stretches far beyond that group. It’s a cop out to only address the affront to indigenous culture in these events.
Reading between the lines you’d guess the AFL lives in fear of a class action from the players who were mistreated.
SafeWork SA stated that it knew the details of Betts’ allegations and concluded no breach of the Work, Health and Safety Act had taken place.
It’s OK according to the regulators. Presumably, that means it could happen all over again without intervention … it makes you wonder what would have to happen to constitute such a breach.
I guess in South Australia they still wear thongs on construction sites.
In Adelaide, the great defenders of the footy club that runs the town moved nimbly from their long held position. It never happened, it never happened, it never happened … OK it did happen but it’s time to move on.
Mirrors must be in short supply across the border because there’s not a lot of self-reflection.
There’s been a protection racket around the events of that 2018 camp to marginalise and silence those who would tell the truth.
Resignations were in order, but were neither offered nor demanded.
The Crows were lauded for their apology. It’s worth spending a moment on what that sounded like.
Tim Silvers took on the task as the Chief Executive. He made no formal statement, but rather took questions.
Here’s a snippet of his 1st, 4th and 6th answers:
“What I read I was actually saddened to read. People’s welfare and wellbeing is paramount to our club. I’m sorry to read it.”
“Anyone who leaves our club who doesn’t have a positive experience, we are sorry.
“There’s an acknowledgement and we think that maybe we could have done a few things better, but we are trying to move passed it. This information that came to light last night, we’ll deal with this, but I think we’re moving in the right direction we’ve got a leadership and a culture around prioritizing others and I think we can move forward, but we’d like to say sorry to Eddie and anyone else who had a negative experience throughout the camp.”
His first answer was he was sorry to read it.
His fourth answer was a vague apology to anyone who left the club that didn’t have a positive experience.
Buried in his sixth answer about moving on the few things they might’ve done better were the only words that mattered.
Silvers couldn’t bring himself to march out in front of the cameras and powerfully and unequivocally apologise.
As for the Players' Association they say they didn’t know … they might be the only ones.
People will disappoint you.
But for whatever anger we feel, and mine is raging, we turn to Eddie Betts to lead.
And he is ready to forgive.
Not for the first time he shows he’s a better person than most us and better than most deserve.