'I was shocked': AFL legend left 'upset' over Cyril Rioli treatment

Hawthorn champion and former captain Luke Hodge says he has been left 'upset' by revelations from club champion Cyril Rioli that he and his wife had suffered racial abuse during their time as Hawks.

Rioli and his wife, Shannyn Ah Sam-Rioli, spoke to The Age about several racial incidents which marred their time at the club, most notably a comment directed at Shannyn from club president Jeff Kennett.

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Kennett allegedly made a comment about the jeans Shannyn was wearing during the Indigenous Round in 2018, eventually offering her sopme spare change from his pockets to have them repaired.

Rioli described the incident as the 'final straw' in what had been a slowly deteriorating relationship with the Hawks, largely due to several incidents of racial comments being directed at him.

Another anecdote involved an end of season trip in 2013, in which the partner of another Indigenous players was described as a 'b***g'.

Rioli remains estranged from the club with which he won four AFL premierships, and remains reluctant to return for premiership reunions so long as Kennett is involved with the club.

Speaking to Gerard Whateley on SEN, Hodge said he had been particularly devastated to learn of the 2013 comment, which was reportedly discussed by the team's leadership group at the time, however Hodge says it was never brought to his attention.

“I was most shocked (about) the 2013 story about what was taken to the leadership group and what was said back to the players – that was very concerning, because I sit there as captain at the time and hadn’t heard of that story,” he said.

Hodge said he had spoken to journalist Caroline Wilson, who wrote the article, to get some more understanding of what had taken place.

Hawthron great Luke Hodge dismayed by Hawks racism controversy

The former captain also spoke to a number of former teammates to get a better understanding of why the incident was not brought to the attention of the club's leadership group.

He said this was because the players involved at the time had settled it, apologising and moving on.

However, Hodge said he was not feeling good about the fact Rioli's concerns and attempts to draw attention to them had amounted to so little during his time at Hawthorn.

“The amount of times that we’ve said to players ‘are you OK’, but it’s not until you dive a little bit deeper, you ask pointed questions that you really get the right answer in and you understand their feelings,” he said.

“You sort of sit back and go: ‘Did we ask pointy enough questions to see how Cyril or see how the other Indigenous plays were feeling?’

"It sort of sits with you that maybe we didn’t ask those pointed questions, which it doesn’t sit comfortably with you."

Hodge said he had reached out to Rioli since Wilson's story was published on Sunday morning, but was yet to hear back from his premiership teammate.

The Hawks have also reached out to Rioli, as has new coach and former teammate Sam Mitchell, however Hodge said he expected Rioli to deal with the issue in his own time.

“I know speaking to a lot of the boys that they have tried to touch base with him,” he said.

“He’s probably been inundated with messages, but as a former teammate and as a club … you can’t push someone into this. You need to sit back, you need to respect their wishes, to give them time.

"But all we can do as former teammates is let him know that we’re there for a chat if he needs to – and this may take a lot of time."

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