Legends demand AFL action on falling Indigenous numbers
Indigenous champions Michael Long and Stephen Michael have called on the AFL industry to do more to promote and support First Nations talent amid a sharp decline in numbers at the top level.
A record total of 87 Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander players were on AFL club lists in 2020, but that number has fallen each year since.
It sits at 62 in 2025, after Hawthorn's Cody Anderson (pick 64) was the only Indigenous player selected at last year's national draft.
Malakai Champion and Ricky Mentha were selected as Category B rookies by West Coast and Melbourne respectively.
Essendon legend Long spoke in recent weeks with a host of AFL clubs about what can be done to ensure more resources are put in place to support First Nations players.
The 55-year-old hopes Sir Doug Nicholls Round can shine a light on the falling number of First Nations players at the top level and ultimately reverse the trend.
"There's a lot of things that clubs can do, not just the AFL," Long said on Wednesday at the launch of this year's "Dreamtime at the G'' feature match.
"Football's played at all different levels countrywide and in remote communities. I think we all have a role to play.
"We spoke to some of the clubs in Adelaide about how can we work closely with the clubs and resource the clubs, because it's too important.
"Obviously we've seen the dip, but we want to improve that and give every kid the opportunity, boys and girls."
It emerged this week former Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro had lobbied the AFL in 2021 to introduce a rule that would have made it mandatory for each club to recruit at least one Indigenous player each year.
The initiative never got off the ground.
Long said he had predicted the fall of First Nations player numbers at AFL level.
"I saw it coming a few years ago with what was happening, not just on the field, but off the field," Long said.
"Nothing's perfect in this world, but we want to see it get better, definitely. That's from past players.
"This week we embrace what clubs do and the good things that are happening. That's important.
"Hopefully from this week we can have those discussions, which leads from the AFL.
"You've got to lead from the top, and it's important that we provide that pathway."
South Fremantle legend Michael - the 2025 Sir Doug Nicholls Round honouree - believes a whole-of-game approach is required to boost support for First Nations players and improve talent pathways.
"We all have to do something, somewhere along the line," Michael said.
"We could have ideas, but it has to go through all clubs, from the top right down to the bottom and down in the country as well."
Essendon host Richmond on Friday night in the 21st edition of the annual "Dreamtime at the G'' contest, which is the centrepiece of Sir Doug Nicholls Round.
The signature moment from the first two decades of "Dreamtime at the G'' clashes came in 2022, when a group of eight Richmond players led a powerful pre-match war dance.
Four of them - Shai Bolton, Daniel Rioli, Shane Edwards and Maurice Rioli Jr - played for the Tigers that night.
This year, as few as two Indigenous players could feature, with Richmond's Rhyan Mansell set to play and Essendon's Jade Gresham cleared to return from injury.
"Indigenous players have sort of dropped off the last few years, but there's a lot of talent out there in the community," Gresham said.
"We've got to help out where we can. I'm not sure how that is.
"The clubs I think are getting better at it, but there's a lot of improvement to go, I think, from the AFL as well."
Indigenous champions Michael Long and Stephen Michael have called on the AFL industry to do more to promote and support First Nations talent amid a sharp decline in numbers at the top level.
A record total of 87 Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander players were on AFL club lists in 2020, but that number has fallen each year since.
It sits at 62 in 2025, after Hawthorn's Cody Anderson (pick 64) was the only Indigenous player selected at last year's national draft.
Malakai Champion and Ricky Mentha were selected as Category B rookies by West Coast and Melbourne respectively.
Essendon legend Long spoke in recent weeks with a host of AFL clubs about what can be done to ensure more resources are put in place to support First Nations players.
The 55-year-old hopes Sir Doug Nicholls Round can shine a light on the falling number of First Nations players at the top level and ultimately reverse the trend.
"There's a lot of things that clubs can do, not just the AFL," Long said on Wednesday at the launch of this year's "Dreamtime at the G'' feature match.
"Football's played at all different levels countrywide and in remote communities. I think we all have a role to play.
"We spoke to some of the clubs in Adelaide about how can we work closely with the clubs and resource the clubs, because it's too important.
"Obviously we've seen the dip, but we want to improve that and give every kid the opportunity, boys and girls."
It emerged this week former Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro had lobbied the AFL in 2021 to introduce a rule that would have made it mandatory for each club to recruit at least one Indigenous player each year.
The initiative never got off the ground.
Long said he had predicted the fall of First Nations player numbers at AFL level.
"I saw it coming a few years ago with what was happening, not just on the field, but off the field," Long said.
"Nothing's perfect in this world, but we want to see it get better, definitely. That's from past players.
"This week we embrace what clubs do and the good things that are happening. That's important.
"Hopefully from this week we can have those discussions, which leads from the AFL.
"You've got to lead from the top, and it's important that we provide that pathway."
South Fremantle legend Michael - the 2025 Sir Doug Nicholls Round honouree - believes a whole-of-game approach is required to boost support for First Nations players and improve talent pathways.
"We all have to do something, somewhere along the line," Michael said.
"We could have ideas, but it has to go through all clubs, from the top right down to the bottom and down in the country as well."
Essendon host Richmond on Friday night in the 21st edition of the annual "Dreamtime at the G'' contest, which is the centrepiece of Sir Doug Nicholls Round.
The signature moment from the first two decades of "Dreamtime at the G'' clashes came in 2022, when a group of eight Richmond players led a powerful pre-match war dance.
Four of them - Shai Bolton, Daniel Rioli, Shane Edwards and Maurice Rioli Jr - played for the Tigers that night.
This year, as few as two Indigenous players could feature, with Richmond's Rhyan Mansell set to play and Essendon's Jade Gresham cleared to return from injury.
"Indigenous players have sort of dropped off the last few years, but there's a lot of talent out there in the community," Gresham said.
"We've got to help out where we can. I'm not sure how that is.
"The clubs I think are getting better at it, but there's a lot of improvement to go, I think, from the AFL as well."
Indigenous champions Michael Long and Stephen Michael have called on the AFL industry to do more to promote and support First Nations talent amid a sharp decline in numbers at the top level.
A record total of 87 Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander players were on AFL club lists in 2020, but that number has fallen each year since.
It sits at 62 in 2025, after Hawthorn's Cody Anderson (pick 64) was the only Indigenous player selected at last year's national draft.
Malakai Champion and Ricky Mentha were selected as Category B rookies by West Coast and Melbourne respectively.
Essendon legend Long spoke in recent weeks with a host of AFL clubs about what can be done to ensure more resources are put in place to support First Nations players.
The 55-year-old hopes Sir Doug Nicholls Round can shine a light on the falling number of First Nations players at the top level and ultimately reverse the trend.
"There's a lot of things that clubs can do, not just the AFL," Long said on Wednesday at the launch of this year's "Dreamtime at the G'' feature match.
"Football's played at all different levels countrywide and in remote communities. I think we all have a role to play.
"We spoke to some of the clubs in Adelaide about how can we work closely with the clubs and resource the clubs, because it's too important.
"Obviously we've seen the dip, but we want to improve that and give every kid the opportunity, boys and girls."
It emerged this week former Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro had lobbied the AFL in 2021 to introduce a rule that would have made it mandatory for each club to recruit at least one Indigenous player each year.
The initiative never got off the ground.
Long said he had predicted the fall of First Nations player numbers at AFL level.
"I saw it coming a few years ago with what was happening, not just on the field, but off the field," Long said.
"Nothing's perfect in this world, but we want to see it get better, definitely. That's from past players.
"This week we embrace what clubs do and the good things that are happening. That's important.
"Hopefully from this week we can have those discussions, which leads from the AFL.
"You've got to lead from the top, and it's important that we provide that pathway."
South Fremantle legend Michael - the 2025 Sir Doug Nicholls Round honouree - believes a whole-of-game approach is required to boost support for First Nations players and improve talent pathways.
"We all have to do something, somewhere along the line," Michael said.
"We could have ideas, but it has to go through all clubs, from the top right down to the bottom and down in the country as well."
Essendon host Richmond on Friday night in the 21st edition of the annual "Dreamtime at the G'' contest, which is the centrepiece of Sir Doug Nicholls Round.
The signature moment from the first two decades of "Dreamtime at the G'' clashes came in 2022, when a group of eight Richmond players led a powerful pre-match war dance.
Four of them - Shai Bolton, Daniel Rioli, Shane Edwards and Maurice Rioli Jr - played for the Tigers that night.
This year, as few as two Indigenous players could feature, with Richmond's Rhyan Mansell set to play and Essendon's Jade Gresham cleared to return from injury.
"Indigenous players have sort of dropped off the last few years, but there's a lot of talent out there in the community," Gresham said.
"We've got to help out where we can. I'm not sure how that is.
"The clubs I think are getting better at it, but there's a lot of improvement to go, I think, from the AFL as well."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
‘Not to be messed with': Criminals recruited for country's biggest wind farm
When Keys arrived at the wind farm, west of Melbourne, as the AWU's chief delegate, he was determined not to let history repeat. According to project insiders, he began cultivating people who could keep the CFMEU at bay. Among them was ex-AFL player Billy Nicholls, who in 2015 was sentenced to 11 years' jail for shooting two men in their legs over drug disputes. Both victims survived, and Nicholls was convicted of intentionally causing serious his arrest, the former Hawthorn and Richmond player's life had become consumed by ice and a descent into the underworld. Keys told supporters Nicholls had not only left jail a reformed man, but with a tough-guy reputation that ensured the CFMEU had earmarked him to join its growing list of criminals-turned-union reps. Keys got in first, appointing Nicholls his new AWU wind farm deputy delegate. Nicholls would in turn bring his own hard men to the wind farm, proposing as a delegate an ex-Geelong bikie and boxer called Brad Azzopardi, who had been released from prison after being jailed for a dangerous driving incident that left a man dead. Wiser heads in the AWU intervened and Azzopardi, who has a 1 per cent bikie tattoo on his head, was instead given a support job on the wind farm. Nicholls also arranged for ex-bikie Jonny Walker, who served eight years in jail for manslaughter over the fatal bashing of a man in a bikie clubhouse, to get work at the wind farm after the CFMEU turfed Walker amid a bikie cleanout in the wake of the Building Bad scandal in July 2024. Along with hard men, Keys and his deputy were also assembling a group of staunch AWU companies capable of withstanding the CFMEU's pressure and heavy connections. Project sources said 24-7 would come to stand out. Workers from rival labour hire firms were pushed onto its books and 24-7 began promoting, through its website, its achievement in supplying 'approximately 50 skilled people … to one of the largest renewable wind farm projects in the world', as well as its 'close working relationships with industry stakeholders, including unions'. When project and union insiders queried why Keys appeared so enamoured with the labour hire company, despite its lack of obvious civil construction experience or AWU history, they became concerned it was because of the whispers that 24-7 had both gangland and CFMEU protection. When first approached by this masthead a fortnight ago, Keys said he had no knowledge of the firm's criminal links, or of any person called Bassem. He said 24-7 involved only 'two girl directors and the operations manager' and that he had 'never met a guy' called Bassem. Keys subsequently refused to answer further questions on the record, despite repeated attempts by this masthead to quiz him. But photos uncovered by this masthead show Keys, Nicholls and a third AWU delegate being hosted by 24-7 at the Collingwood AFL President's Lunch at the MCG on the day the Building Bad scandal broke last July. In the photos, there is no sign of the firm's female directors. Rather, the AWU trio are snapped at the 24-7 table posing with two brothers, Bassem and Osama Elsayed, along with a third man, Jarrod Hennig. Bassem is a convicted criminal who was accused in a September 2017 bail hearing by a Victoria Police special taskforce of hiring a violent criminal to bribe a grandmother preparing to testify that his brother Osama had shoved a gun in her son's mouth over a drug debt. A detective told the bail hearing of her concerns about Bassem's 'associations with organised crime' and how phone taps had captured him and his younger brother talking about how the violent criminal would be 'taking care of it'. Loading 'They have a conversation, laughing in regards to how loose … [the standover man] is and they know that he has … [previously] murdered someone,' the court heard. The court also heard allegations Bassem had separately extorted an associate over a $100,000 business loan, texting the victim: 'I hope Allah burns you in hell you thief' and allegedly hiring a standover man who threatened to 'rape' the debtor's family. After the victim retracted the most serious allegations from his statement, Bassem was sentenced in 2019 to six months' jail and a 12-month community corrections order. The conviction added to a criminal rap sheet that already included 'offences of violence, dishonesty, firearm, driving and drug offences' and which Victorian Supreme Court judge Rita Zammit described as 'significant'. Osama was, in August 2019, separately jailed for three years and four months for his role in a drug trafficking syndicate and for separate charges of robbery and recklessly causing injury. This drug syndicate was led by the third man photographed at the MCG lunch, Jarrod Hennig, who was jailed for eight years on multiple counts of drug trafficking. Industry, underworld and police sources, along with corporate and court records, reveal Hennig's middle name to be Morgan. He is the 'Jarrod Morgan' whose signature appears on AWU enterprise bargaining agreements secured by 24-7 in 2023 and 2024. Hennig is also married to Rebecca Reed, who signed off on the same documents as 24-7's director. Her co-director, Kristina Kuzmanovska, is Bassem Elsayed's wife. Osama Elsayed also appears to have been involved in the 24-7 group, creating a business called 24-7 Waterproofing in 2024 with fellow convicted drug trafficker Mohsen Mehrijafarloo. In January 2025, 24-7 Labour moved its registered office to a new Northcote business address. On the same day, Osama moved another of his businesses to the same registered office. The address is the office of accountant Charles Pellegrino, who for years has handled the finances of the CFMEU-backed gangland figures Mick Gatto and John Khoury. Pellegrino's Northcote office was raided in March by a federal police team investigating payments to Pellegrino's companies that were allegedly intended for Gatto, Khoury and other construction industry or union players. No charges have been laid. There is no suggestion the Elsayed brothers are the targets of that federal police operation. But they have their own strong links to the CFMEU. A character referee for Bassem at his 2017 bail hearing was ex-kickboxer and bouncer Chris Chrisopoulidis, who told the judge he was 'good friends' with Bassem. Chrisopoulidis would go on to become one of the CFMEU organisers who confronted Keys on the West Gate project. Bassem's wife, Kristina, is also a 50 per cent shareholder of a construction firm which gained a CFMEU enterprise bargaining agreement in 2021. Her co-owner of that business is builder Thomas Chillico, who is facing criminal charges for allegedly bribing a public official to gain construction permits. In a statement, Rebecca Reed said 24-7 'has no knowledge of or involvement with organised crime at all and is in all respects a well-run small family business. Loading 'If anyone has made allegations that 24-7 … is in any way involved with organised crime, those allegations are false,' she wrote. She said that while the company took a 'progressive approach to ex-offenders', Bassem had no 'formal involvement' with her firm. Reed did not answer several specific questions, or respond to further requests. Asked about whether he knew of 24-7 ties to any criminals such as Bassem, AWU secretary Ronnie Hayden said he had 'no idea who any of these people are'. 'When 24-7 came to us … Jared [sic] came with two women, Rebecca and Kristina,' he said. Hayden stressed he had never authorised the AWU to give preferential treatment to any labour hire firm. He conceded it was possible Keys had 'favoured' 24-7 because of concerns other labour hire firms were not giving the AWU the chance to recruit their workers as union members. 'I understand Johnny was pissed off with the labour hire companies that had done that,' he said. Before 24-7 was engaged at Golden Plains, there was the Host Group. It not only supplied multiple workers to the wind farm project but allied itself closely with the AWU in Queensland, contributing dozens of workers and security personnel to the government-funded Centenary Bridge upgrade in Brisbane. Host's director Gary Samuel has recently fallen out dramatically with the AWU over hotly disputed claims of underpayment of workers. But until last year, Host promoted itself boldly as the AWU's preferred labour hire company across the nation, helping it win an important contract with Centenary Bridge's key contractor, BMD Group. That deal partly involved providing security against intimidation tactics carried out by the CFMEU on the project. BMD declined to comment, but this masthead's investigation has confirmed that a security subcontractor used by Host to help do this engaged several high-ranking Comancheros, including the feared bikie group's national president, Bemir Saracevic, to intimidate CFMEU figures in Brisbane last year. While there is no suggestion that Samuel himself was involved in the Comanchero standover, he has a history of underworld relationships. Sources close to Samuel have confirmed he met Saracevic on multiple occasions, having employed one of the bikie boss's close friends as a Host adviser and worker. Royal commission records reveal that in 2011, Samuel advised a building firm owned by Mick Gatto and his fellow underworld identity Mat Tomas (both Tomas and Gatto achieved notoriety by beating separate murder charges). Samuel later went into a failed business venture with Tomas and also ran the Victorian operations of the now-deceased labour hire king Kevin McHugh, whom federal police charged in 2020 with money laundering offences and tax fraud. Loading Samuel is also close to convicted drug trafficker turned businessman Michael La Verde, who married into a prominent Calabrian mafia family and has a host of organised crime connections. La Verde claims on LinkedIn to be involved in Samuel's Host Group, although it is understood this is limited to Samuel providing his friend an email address. Samuel declined to answer specific questions but in a statement said it was 'important to acknowledge the ongoing rivalry between the CFMEU and the AWU' and that 'certain factions of the CFMEU have been linked to organised crime'. 'Our company is law-abiding and has no link to organised crime,' he said. The AWU is now rethinking its backing of the firm at the wind farm and the Centenary Bridge. Quizzed about Host, Hayden conceded the union failed to undertake thorough due diligence of labour hire firms it has supported with EBAs and other union backing. He said the union would lift its game but also urged federal and state governments to do more to weed out sinister players in the industry. Hayden said one vital reform the Albanese government could back was banning labour hire on government-funded projects. 'I think any project that the government are putting taxpayers' money into should be direct employment,' he said. A Victorian government spokesperson said it was 'eradicating the rotten culture' in the construction industry, including through the introduction of new powers for the Labour Hire Authority. Federal Workplace Relations minister Amanda Rishworth said the government was finalising a blueprint to improve the industry and was working on the implementation of a new labour hire system.
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Not to be messed with': Criminals recruited for country's biggest wind farm
When Keys arrived at the wind farm, west of Melbourne, as the AWU's chief delegate, he was determined not to let history repeat. According to project insiders, he began cultivating people who could keep the CFMEU at bay. Among them was ex-AFL player Billy Nicholls, who in 2015 was sentenced to 11 years' jail for shooting two men in their legs over drug disputes. Both victims survived, and Nicholls was convicted of intentionally causing serious his arrest, the former Hawthorn and Richmond player's life had become consumed by ice and a descent into the underworld. Keys told supporters Nicholls had not only left jail a reformed man, but with a tough-guy reputation that ensured the CFMEU had earmarked him to join its growing list of criminals-turned-union reps. Keys got in first, appointing Nicholls his new AWU wind farm deputy delegate. Nicholls would in turn bring his own hard men to the wind farm, proposing as a delegate an ex-Geelong bikie and boxer called Brad Azzopardi, who had been released from prison after being jailed for a dangerous driving incident that left a man dead. Wiser heads in the AWU intervened and Azzopardi, who has a 1 per cent bikie tattoo on his head, was instead given a support job on the wind farm. Nicholls also arranged for ex-bikie Jonny Walker, who served eight years in jail for manslaughter over the fatal bashing of a man in a bikie clubhouse, to get work at the wind farm after the CFMEU turfed Walker amid a bikie cleanout in the wake of the Building Bad scandal in July 2024. Along with hard men, Keys and his deputy were also assembling a group of staunch AWU companies capable of withstanding the CFMEU's pressure and heavy connections. Project sources said 24-7 would come to stand out. Workers from rival labour hire firms were pushed onto its books and 24-7 began promoting, through its website, its achievement in supplying 'approximately 50 skilled people … to one of the largest renewable wind farm projects in the world', as well as its 'close working relationships with industry stakeholders, including unions'. When project and union insiders queried why Keys appeared so enamoured with the labour hire company, despite its lack of obvious civil construction experience or AWU history, they became concerned it was because of the whispers that 24-7 had both gangland and CFMEU protection. When first approached by this masthead a fortnight ago, Keys said he had no knowledge of the firm's criminal links, or of any person called Bassem. He said 24-7 involved only 'two girl directors and the operations manager' and that he had 'never met a guy' called Bassem. Keys subsequently refused to answer further questions on the record, despite repeated attempts by this masthead to quiz him. But photos uncovered by this masthead show Keys, Nicholls and a third AWU delegate being hosted by 24-7 at the Collingwood AFL President's Lunch at the MCG on the day the Building Bad scandal broke last July. In the photos, there is no sign of the firm's female directors. Rather, the AWU trio are snapped at the 24-7 table posing with two brothers, Bassem and Osama Elsayed, along with a third man, Jarrod Hennig. Bassem is a convicted criminal who was accused in a September 2017 bail hearing by a Victoria Police special taskforce of hiring a violent criminal to bribe a grandmother preparing to testify that his brother Osama had shoved a gun in her son's mouth over a drug debt. A detective told the bail hearing of her concerns about Bassem's 'associations with organised crime' and how phone taps had captured him and his younger brother talking about how the violent criminal would be 'taking care of it'. Loading 'They have a conversation, laughing in regards to how loose … [the standover man] is and they know that he has … [previously] murdered someone,' the court heard. The court also heard allegations Bassem had separately extorted an associate over a $100,000 business loan, texting the victim: 'I hope Allah burns you in hell you thief' and allegedly hiring a standover man who threatened to 'rape' the debtor's family. After the victim retracted the most serious allegations from his statement, Bassem was sentenced in 2019 to six months' jail and a 12-month community corrections order. The conviction added to a criminal rap sheet that already included 'offences of violence, dishonesty, firearm, driving and drug offences' and which Victorian Supreme Court judge Rita Zammit described as 'significant'. Osama was, in August 2019, separately jailed for three years and four months for his role in a drug trafficking syndicate and for separate charges of robbery and recklessly causing injury. This drug syndicate was led by the third man photographed at the MCG lunch, Jarrod Hennig, who was jailed for eight years on multiple counts of drug trafficking. Industry, underworld and police sources, along with corporate and court records, reveal Hennig's middle name to be Morgan. He is the 'Jarrod Morgan' whose signature appears on AWU enterprise bargaining agreements secured by 24-7 in 2023 and 2024. Hennig is also married to Rebecca Reed, who signed off on the same documents as 24-7's director. Her co-director, Kristina Kuzmanovska, is Bassem Elsayed's wife. Osama Elsayed also appears to have been involved in the 24-7 group, creating a business called 24-7 Waterproofing in 2024 with fellow convicted drug trafficker Mohsen Mehrijafarloo. In January 2025, 24-7 Labour moved its registered office to a new Northcote business address. On the same day, Osama moved another of his businesses to the same registered office. The address is the office of accountant Charles Pellegrino, who for years has handled the finances of the CFMEU-backed gangland figures Mick Gatto and John Khoury. Pellegrino's Northcote office was raided in March by a federal police team investigating payments to Pellegrino's companies that were allegedly intended for Gatto, Khoury and other construction industry or union players. No charges have been laid. There is no suggestion the Elsayed brothers are the targets of that federal police operation. But they have their own strong links to the CFMEU. A character referee for Bassem at his 2017 bail hearing was ex-kickboxer and bouncer Chris Chrisopoulidis, who told the judge he was 'good friends' with Bassem. Chrisopoulidis would go on to become one of the CFMEU organisers who confronted Keys on the West Gate project. Bassem's wife, Kristina, is also a 50 per cent shareholder of a construction firm which gained a CFMEU enterprise bargaining agreement in 2021. Her co-owner of that business is builder Thomas Chillico, who is facing criminal charges for allegedly bribing a public official to gain construction permits. In a statement, Rebecca Reed said 24-7 'has no knowledge of or involvement with organised crime at all and is in all respects a well-run small family business. Loading 'If anyone has made allegations that 24-7 … is in any way involved with organised crime, those allegations are false,' she wrote. She said that while the company took a 'progressive approach to ex-offenders', Bassem had no 'formal involvement' with her firm. Reed did not answer several specific questions, or respond to further requests. Asked about whether he knew of 24-7 ties to any criminals such as Bassem, AWU secretary Ronnie Hayden said he had 'no idea who any of these people are'. 'When 24-7 came to us … Jared [sic] came with two women, Rebecca and Kristina,' he said. Hayden stressed he had never authorised the AWU to give preferential treatment to any labour hire firm. He conceded it was possible Keys had 'favoured' 24-7 because of concerns other labour hire firms were not giving the AWU the chance to recruit their workers as union members. 'I understand Johnny was pissed off with the labour hire companies that had done that,' he said. Before 24-7 was engaged at Golden Plains, there was the Host Group. It not only supplied multiple workers to the wind farm project but allied itself closely with the AWU in Queensland, contributing dozens of workers and security personnel to the government-funded Centenary Bridge upgrade in Brisbane. Host's director Gary Samuel has recently fallen out dramatically with the AWU over hotly disputed claims of underpayment of workers. But until last year, Host promoted itself boldly as the AWU's preferred labour hire company across the nation, helping it win an important contract with Centenary Bridge's key contractor, BMD Group. That deal partly involved providing security against intimidation tactics carried out by the CFMEU on the project. BMD declined to comment, but this masthead's investigation has confirmed that a security subcontractor used by Host to help do this engaged several high-ranking Comancheros, including the feared bikie group's national president, Bemir Saracevic, to intimidate CFMEU figures in Brisbane last year. While there is no suggestion that Samuel himself was involved in the Comanchero standover, he has a history of underworld relationships. Sources close to Samuel have confirmed he met Saracevic on multiple occasions, having employed one of the bikie boss's close friends as a Host adviser and worker. Royal commission records reveal that in 2011, Samuel advised a building firm owned by Mick Gatto and his fellow underworld identity Mat Tomas (both Tomas and Gatto achieved notoriety by beating separate murder charges). Samuel later went into a failed business venture with Tomas and also ran the Victorian operations of the now-deceased labour hire king Kevin McHugh, whom federal police charged in 2020 with money laundering offences and tax fraud. Loading Samuel is also close to convicted drug trafficker turned businessman Michael La Verde, who married into a prominent Calabrian mafia family and has a host of organised crime connections. La Verde claims on LinkedIn to be involved in Samuel's Host Group, although it is understood this is limited to Samuel providing his friend an email address. Samuel declined to answer specific questions but in a statement said it was 'important to acknowledge the ongoing rivalry between the CFMEU and the AWU' and that 'certain factions of the CFMEU have been linked to organised crime'. 'Our company is law-abiding and has no link to organised crime,' he said. The AWU is now rethinking its backing of the firm at the wind farm and the Centenary Bridge. Quizzed about Host, Hayden conceded the union failed to undertake thorough due diligence of labour hire firms it has supported with EBAs and other union backing. He said the union would lift its game but also urged federal and state governments to do more to weed out sinister players in the industry. Hayden said one vital reform the Albanese government could back was banning labour hire on government-funded projects. 'I think any project that the government are putting taxpayers' money into should be direct employment,' he said. A Victorian government spokesperson said it was 'eradicating the rotten culture' in the construction industry, including through the introduction of new powers for the Labour Hire Authority. Federal Workplace Relations minister Amanda Rishworth said the government was finalising a blueprint to improve the industry and was working on the implementation of a new labour hire system.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
How Tom Harley traded up from one game at Port Adelaide to holding the keys to AFL House
One kick. One goal. That's where it could have ended for new AFL COO Tom Harley. Almost exactly 27 years ago, the then-20-year-old debuted for Port Adelaide in a round 14 game against Geelong that has every right to be forgotten. It was mid-season at Football Park, between two teams that would go on to miss finals — one on a trajectory up the ladder, the other crawling towards years of uncomfortable irrelevance. Amid a score of future Port premiership stars like Gavin Wanganeen and Warren Tredrea and Stuart Dew, the unfashionable, slow-moving number 27 was all but a footnote in a game that was an annotation in a season that was an aside in the history of both the Power and the Cats. He came on. He got a kick. That kick was a goal. He never played for Port again. For many, that would have been the end of it. Harley had worked hard to get to that point. He was hardly a star in his juniors, and lacked the skills, the speed, and the sheer athleticism to be considered any sort of game-changer on the field. He was the type of player that would be one of the last picked, and should have been grateful for the opportunity. One kick. One goal. Enough to be satisfied that he had made it to the AFL and at least got his hands on the pill. By the end of the season, he was surplus to demands at Port. He was studying for a Bachelor of Commerce in Adelaide, and a life of full-time work with a bit of part-time footy glanced around the changing room doors at Alberton and waggled its finger, as it had waggled at thousands of players before him. But that one kick. That one goal. Somehow, it had done enough to capture the eye of someone at Geelong. Maybe it was "master recruiter" Stephen Wells, who was early in his journey at the club, back when he was just "recruiter" Stephen Wells. Or maybe it was coach Gary Ayres, who had a habit of making unfashionable decisions at a club that had for so long relied on fashionable players. Whoever it was, they decided that Tom Harley was worth a punt. They gave Port Adelaide pick 37, Port Adelaide gave them Harley, and in an odd reminder of what he was worth to them, the Cats gave Harley the number 37 guernsey. He would debut for the Cats — as he did for the Power — in a round 14 game that had little bearing on the season. A Geelong team in the midst of its burgeoning irrelevance, an Adelaide team on the way down the ladder after two premierships. Three kicks. No goals. The next week he'd get the ball nine times. By game three, he'd found the Sherrin on 13 occasions. Carefully and gradually, he built on his trade. By 2000, and under new coach Mark Thompson, Harley had turned himself into a key defender whose magnet remained permanently attached to the centre half-back position on the white board. Slow, but clever, undersized, but strong. He was a reader of the game, a watcher who only inserted himself into the story when it absolutely demanded it. There was nothing glamorous about him. Geelong didn't need more glamour. The new kids on the list — Gary Ablett Jr, Steve Johnson, Jimmy Bartel — they had enough glitz to make Moorabool St feel like Sunset Boulevard. But Harley was different to the old Geelong. That Geelong cherished style above substance. That Geelong could make the Grand Final in a glorious halo of after-the-siren heroics but fall apart when it mattered. Harley was the in-betweener who had the respect of the players around him as a more-than-reliable general in the backline, and the respect of the administrators as a well-spoken, intelligent footballer who was fast learning what the business of footy was all about. That every man persona was part of the reason Thompson made him captain in 2007, the year Geelong broke its 44-year premiership drought. Ask any Geelong supporter and they'll mention a few names as being the key architects in turning the club around. Wells as recruiter will certainly be there. Thompson as coach deserves more plaudits than most. President Frank Costa and chief executive Brian Cook will always get a nod. When they talk about players, they'll mention Ablett and Bartel, Brad Ottens in the ruck, Matthew Scarlett at full-back. But a special mention will be left for Harley. That yes, he was the leader of an exceptional backline on the field. But it was what he did off it that was key. He understood that kicking the ball was one small part of a successful club. Having retired at the end of 2009, once again lifting the premiership cup to the Geelong faithful, Harley dabbled in media, he worked at the AIS-AFL Academy, and he played in role in the establishment of the GWS Giants. He got a taste for it all, before joining the Sydney Swans in 2014 as their general manager, becoming the CEO in 2019, and overseeing a club that has seen record crowds, record memberships, and sustained on-field success in the heart of rugby league territory. Now, Harley faces his greatest challenge of all, becoming the second banana behind Andrew Dillon. One of the great knocks of the AFL of late has been a perceived disregard for the clubs and the fans. Whether right or wrong, discord has been growing. The clubs and the coaches have felt unheard and unloved. The fans have felt pushed aside for the almighty dollar, as costs skyrocket and games scream out from behind a paywall. Harley's status as an in-betweener has never been more important. His knowledge of the clubs, his understanding of playing the game, his acute awareness of what success means to long-suffering fans will be put to the test over the coming years. One kick. One goal. In 2005, a Canadian blogger traded a red paper clip for a pen. He traded the pen for a doorknob. And he kept trading up until he eventually owned a house. From one kick, one goal, Tom Harley has traded up to almost holding the keys to AFL House. He might only have one shot at getting it right once he has them. The AFL can only hope that he kicks truly.
