Alastair Clarkson hopes to defend racism allegations from former Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli in court

AFL premiership coach Alastair Clarkson insists he would welcome the opportunity to defend himself against racism allegations in Federal Court, as former Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli and others continue to pursue legal action.

Rioli, who played in four premierships at the Hawks under Clarkson, is the lead applicant in a statement of claim lodged in the Federal Court last Friday against his former club.

Rioli’s wife Shannyn Ah Sam-Rioli, former players Carl Peterson and Jermaine Miller-Lewis, his partner Montanah-Rae Lewis, and Hawthorn’s former Indigenous liaison officer Leon Egan are also named.

The step came after mediation between the group and those accused of racism - including Clarkson and his former assistant Chris Fagan - was terminated by the Human Rights Commission in May.

The Hawthorn Football Club is listed as the sole respondent in the Federal Court documents, while current Clarkson and Fagan were not specifically named.

The pair, who are now coaching North Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions respectively, may be required to appear as witnesses.

Clarkson welcomed that prospect when questioned by reporters at the Kangaroos’ Arden Street headquarters on Thursday.

“I hope so, but we’ll just need to see how it all plays out,” he said.

“Federal Court process is a really, really long process, so I don’t even know when it’s going to be.

“It could be as far away as two years away.

“So we’ll just let that all play out and in the meantime just concentrate on the things that we can control, and that’s just going about our day-to-day work.”

Hawthorn commissioned a cultural safety review in 2022 to investigate allegations of systemic mistreatment of First Nations players at the club.

The findings were made public via a media report in AFL grand final week that year.

An AFL investigation later found no adverse findings against Clarkson, Fagan and former Hawks welfare manager Jason Burt.

Clarkson, Fagan and Burt have consistently denied wrongdoing and rejected accusations of racism.

“It’s played out for a long, long period of time and we’re just hopeful for all parties involved that some sort of resolution can occur,” Clarkson said.

“We worked really hard to try to seek some sort of resolution through the Human Rights Commission.

“It didn’t occur, which was unfortunate, but this is the next platform that we get an opportunity to find some sort of resolution.”