The AFL is being urged to do much more to stamp out what one academic calls "systemic racism", following a grand final week marred by harrowing claims levelled at the Hawthorn Football Club.
Former players, families and academics are united on the need for broader action, including Indigenous quotas for club staff, Indigenous programs for players and a league-wide review.
Dr Matthew Klugman, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Sport and Health at Victoria University, said the AFL has repeatedly failed to address what he describes as "clearly systemic racism".
"[The AFL] keeps kind of addressing these symptoms, but it hasn't started to really reckon with the underlying problem," Dr Klugman told the ABC's This Week podcast.
Last week, the ABC revealed allegations that key figures at the Hawthorn club demanded the separation of young First Nations players from their partners, and pressured one couple to terminate a pregnancy for the sake of the player's career.
"It was a tough read, to be honest, today. But I wasn't surprised," former AFL player Eddie Betts said on Fox Footy.
Likening these allegations to the policies of the Stolen Generation, the former Carlton and Adelaide player also called for a much broader review of how Indigenous players are treated.
"I think that every club should do a review like [Hawthorn did] – every football club should come out and do an external review," Mr Betts said.
"We want this industry to be safe for young Indigenous kids."
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan was quick to announce an independent review into the "disturbing" allegations revealed by Hawthorn's own inquiry, but Dr Klugman said there's a danger it'll be "siloed away" and won't lead to the kind of reform that's needed.
"One of the key things that the AFL has so far refused to do and continues to refuse to do is to have a broader truth telling, a broader review and chance to say what's happened at all the clubs," he told This Week.
"You know, what are the systemic issues here and how can we have structural responses to them?"
AFL run by 'rich white men'
The AFL pointed out this week that every club now has an Indigenous liaison officer, but Dr Klugman also wants to see Indigenous quotas put in place, so that the percentage of Indigenous staff at each club is equivalent to the percentage of Indigenous players in the league.
"[So that] Aboriginal voices and Torres Strait Islander voices are central to the conversations and the decisions being made rather than an afterthought."
He said perceptions in the administration of sport are important too because "… these institutions are still heavily white and run by very rich white men with a whole lot of the implications of that."
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan last week underlined the importance of the "right representation" of Indigenous Australians at clubs and said he expects those calls to "get louder".
But he stopped short of voicing support for quotas.
"I think quotas is a broader discussion," he said.
"We just need to keep talking about how we get the right representation so we have strong voices at all levels of clubs."
Indigenous programs 'a good set up'
The grandmother of AFL player Malcolm Rosas Junior is calling on AFL clubs to consider models that are already working well, like that adopted by the Gold Coast Suns.
"They've got a really good set up there" Eileen Cummings told the ABC's PM program.
"They allow them to talk about home and where they come from.
"[They] also take them out on fishing trips so that the boys are relaxed and not worrying about things and if any of them do have concerns they've got this branch that they can go to."
A series of former Indigenous players who have exited early from AFL clubs have complained that they were urged to break ties with family.
Ms Cummings said Gold Coast hasn't put that kind of pressure on her grandson.
"He came home for his father's funeral, he came home for his cousin's funeral. So, they allow them to do that sort of thing. So, he's not left on his own," she said.
Ms Cummings thinks change in the sport will also require change community-wide.
"We've had racism and all that all of our lives, it's nothing new to us," she said.
"But I think it's time that Australia really put its foot down as a nation.
"We're all Australians, you know? We all want to play sport, we all want to do things within our country, so allow us to do that."
