Hawthorn is awaiting notification from AFL senior investigator Gerry Ryan, who until last year was a high-ranking Victoria Police officer, as to whether their coach Alastair Clarkson will face charges over an altercation in Adelaide at the weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As of Monday morning there was no update from SA Police on whether its investigation had progressed.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire strongly defended Clarkson over the incident which occurred in the aftermath of the Hawks' loss away to Port Adelaide, as the coach was part of a club contingent walking back to their hotel.
"There's a lack of respect here. This 'selfie generation' - and it's not just young people, middle-aged and older people [too] - now have this fascination that everyone is the prime objective of their desire and their own narcissism to get their own head in a photo shot with anyone vaguely familiar," McGuire said on Triple M on Monday morning.
"These guys were getting bolder and bolder and bolder, and while I don't like to see Alastair lash out the way he did it was controlled. He didn't really hit the guy . . . it wasn't a 'one punch' situation, nothing like that. He just warned this bloke off."
McGuire argued "if you're surrounded by drunks getting louder and louder and braver and braver you've got every [right] in the world to be able to protect yourself".
Hawthorn general manager of football operations Chris Fagan, who was part of the contingent, said the men who approached Clarkson "really should have gone away on the first time that he asked them nicely [to]".
"For those of you who know 'Clarko' he's very generous with signing autographs and having photos with people but he just didn't feel like it on Saturday night, and the fact those guys were drunk as well made him want to make that decision," Fagan told SEN.
"I actually thought at one stage I could get a punch in the back of the head here easily enough because I was trying to block [them from Clarkson]."
Recounting an incident when he was, in his teens, the victim of an unprovoked attack, Fagan said that when someone if feeling threatened "your natural reaction is to defend yourself when you're not sure".
Fagan said he notified AFL general manager of football operations Mark Evans of the incident about 7am on Sunday. He then called Ryan, who joined the league's integrity department in February last year after more than 40 years at Victoria Police.
"We've got Gerry looking into that with South Australian police early today. We're just awaiting an update on information and we'll take it from there," Fagan said.
SA Police's only statement on the matter was made on Sunday afternoon, when it called for witnesses to the incident to help its investigation.
Former Western Bulldogs ruckman Luke Darcy called on the man involved in the altercation with Clarkson, after goading him about the Hawks' loss and yelling in his ear, to apologise for his conduct.
"If I'm reading it correctly this guy who's the main perpetrator has now complained to the police . . . what a complete peanut," he told Triple M.
"You've obviously had too many beers. You should come out and apologise, say it was your fault, and maybe then we can move on."
