There has been a major development in the long-running and explosive racism scandal that came out of the Hawthorn Football Club in 2022.
7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary has revealed the Human Rights Commission are now involved and dates are locked in.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Hawthorn racism scandal heads to Human Rights Commission.
Stream analysis, local footy and the biggest moments free on 7plus 
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson, Brisbane coach Chris Fagan and former assistant Jason Burt — who all worked together at Hawthorn — are set to have a ‘conciliation’ process (similar to mediation) at the Commission on Tuesday and Wednesday of March 26 and 27.
They will face the former Hawthorn players — including AFL great Cyril Rioli — who have made the allegations of racism.
The meeting is just days out from Clarkson and Fagan’s monster Easter weekend games.
Fagan will coach the Lions in the grand final re-match with Collingwood on Easter Thursday on March 28.
A day later Clarkson will lead his Kangaroos against Carlton in the club’s annual Good Friday clash.
Cleary said both coaches are taking the view that this a strong show of commitment to the process, even if it impacts their game preparation.
In May last year, the AFL closed its investigation into the matter and found “no wrongdoing”.
Conversations with the former players is scheduled at the Commission and there is hope that it ends there, rather than progress to the legal system.
One of the more serious accusations at the time was that an Indigenous player had been told to persuade his partner to have an abortion.
It was also alleged that an Indigenous player had his phone taken from and was encouraged to leave his partner.
Clarkson and Fagan were furious after the allegations were leaked and have always denied the claims.
In May last year Clarkson took a mental health break from coaching as the fallout took its toll.
They were also alarmed that a report was compiled and only one side of the story was told.
“The game has been shamed, obviously myself, ‘Fages’ and Jason, our families have been shamed. The Indigenous and First Nations families, they’ve been shamed,” Clarkson said last year.
“The damage is done, reputations have been scarred and we’ve got to somehow just claw our reputations back through this whole process.”
