AFL won't punish Jeff Kennett over 'new arrivals' remarks
Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett will not be punished by the AFL despite doubling down on his controversial criticism of the ongoing security issue before expressing his regret.
Kennett had questioned whether security staff were “new arrivals” to Australia without the required knowledge of the game to police crowd behaviour.
"I'm not being racist when I say this but ... the people who are making judgements while they wear these authoritative coats are not people who appear to have a great knowledge of our game,” he said on Monday.
Kennett refused to retract his statement when he did the rounds on Tuesday morning, even reiterating his point.
“Did I go too far? Well, some of you might say so,” he said on SEN radio.
“But I’m certainly not backing away from it at all. I’m not going to be driven into the ground by some sort of bloody political correctness.
“Most of us have been going to the football for many, many years. I don’t mind people having the opportunity to be employed.
“But if you don’t know the game, if you haven’t got a tribe, if you haven’t been immersed in football, how are you going to judge what good behaviour is or bad behaviour?
“If you have a look at the footage that I saw on television, these people were either Australian-born and been here for many years – I suspect not – they’re more new arrivals, most of our security people.”
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said Kennett's remarks were inappropriate, declaring an apology would end the matter.
"I don’t agree with him, I think Jeff is wrong," he said in a press conference on Tuesday that was slammed as a ‘train wreck’.
"I think people need to be judged on their performance in their roles not their origin or backgrounds.
"If you call out someone based on their appearance and not their ability, you're racially stereotyping. And I have told Jeff that."
Kennett tweeted his apology after McLachlan spoke to reporters.
“I expressed my regret at using some of the words I did and apologise for doing so,” the former Victorian premier said.
This morning I spoke to Gill McLachlan about my comments yesterday 're a Behavioural Awareness Officer at Marvel Stadium at Friday night's game. I expressed my regret at using some of the words I did and apologise for doing so.
— Jeff Kennett (@jeff_kennett) June 18, 2019
For some fans and journalists, words weren’t enough.
If that was not a train wreck of a press conference - we then have Gil saying @jeff_kennett regrets his comments but no please explain etc will be issued. But they issue an apology about Goodes being booed. What an absolute shambles.
— Vergops (@Vergops) June 18, 2019
Hard not to feel that AFL's Indigenous, multicultural rounds etc are mere dress ups when AFL won't sanction Jeff Kennett for comments tantamount to racial profiling
— Andrew Wu (@wutube) June 18, 2019
Gil's tiptoeing around whether the AFL will sanction Kennett was the worst thing about all that. Show some leadership on that at least!
— Stuart Randall (@StuartRandall) June 18, 2019
Gillon’s management of the questions about Kennett in that press conference are embarrassing and so revealing, wow where do you start?! #AFL 🙈
— Joshua Papa (@joshua__papa) June 18, 2019
with AAP