‘Embarrassing, lacking credibility’: Indigenous greats slam AFL

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A growing cohort of the game’s most decorated First Nations footballers has expressed deep disappointment in a new AFL subcommittee designed to address the falling numbers of Indigenous players across the AFL and AFLW.

All-Australians Shaun Burgoyne, Michael O’Loughlin and Michael Walters are among the retired AFL stars critical of the make-up and lack of Indigenous representation on the Greg Swann-led 16-member panel. The panel includes only three First Nations Australians, no one from the Northern Territory, NSW or Queensland, and minimal input from Western Australia.

Four-time premiership player Burgoyne led the chorus, telling this masthead: “I don’t think anyone apart from two people at AFL House knew they were going down this path. Not that I wanted to be on it, but who was consulted? There is altogether a lack of process.

“It would have been nice to get a phone call because I had a lot of people I would have recommended. Sonny [Michael] Walters would have had an opinion. Micky O [O’Loughlin] would have had an opinion.

“If growing numbers in New South Wales or Queensland are top priorities then where is the representation? If growing AFLW numbers, which are down again, [is a priority] then why are there only two women?

“If numbers out of the Northern Territory are down and there is talk of a 20th licence, why is no one from the NT on the panel? It’s embarrassing.”

Burgoyne, along with O’Loughlin, Walters, Eddie Betts, David Rodan, Daniel Motlop and Mathew Stokes, also communicated their shock at the exclusion of the game’s national AFL talent diversity........

© The Sydney Morning Herald