Could the Hawthorn review unleash a new reckoning in the AFL?

It was early in the 2010 AFL season and the Hawthorn coach, Alastair Clarkson, was under pressure.

His side had lost six of its first seven games, prompting the club president, the volatile former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, to send a seething email to members.

The season finished in an elimination finals exit, yet Clarkson was upbeat.

But 2010 was the start of what has been called the greatest scandal in AFL history: allegations of horrific treatment of Indigenous players and their partners by Clarkson and other employees at Hawthorn.

According to the claims made during an independent investigation commissioned by the club, players were forced into separating from their partners, and one was told to tell his partner to terminate her pregnancy.

The allegations taint the legacy of Clarkson and the teams he ruthlessly led to greatness.

And they appear set to unleash a reckoning in the AFL unmatched by previous racism scandals, from the booing of Adam Goodes to the abuse of Nicky Winmar.

In the email the woman said the club had forced her partner to break off their relationship.

She said that on 13 March the player had a meeting with the then head of coaching and development, Chris Fagan, which involved the player being questioned about his personal life, including his recent engagement.

On the afternoon of 15 March, she said her partner, Clarkson, Fagan and former player development manager Jason Burt came to the house. Her mother had arrived soon before to warn her they were coming.

The woman said she had been with her partner for eight years, having started a relationship at 13. They had been due to hold an engagement party with 92 guests only days after the player was moved out of the house.

After he was moved out and she was allegedly unable to contact him, she called the police.

According to the email chain included in the report, she said she thought a catchup would be beneficial, but that the club would not be the best place.

She sent further emails seeking a meeting the following day, on 22 March, and again on 25 March, when she said she had been hospitalised because of the stress of the separation and concerns about the health of her baby.

According to the email chain, Newbold responded on the afternoon of 25 March that after speaking with Burt he had decided against a meeting.

Newbold has denied sending the emails, telling the Herald Sun he did not have access to his Hawthorn FC email address at the time he was at the club.

The Newbold email chain is one of several pieces of evidence including text messages, other emails and written transcripts that the author of the internal report, consultant and former AFL player Phil Egan, said were provided to him by five players and partners to support the claims they had made against Hawthorn.

These other pieces of evidence have not been publicly released.

The report had been commissioned after former star player Cyril Rioli and his partner made claims in the Age that the club had mistreated them because of their race.

Egan made seven recommendations, including that those alleged abuses between 2010 and 2016 be reported to the AFL integrity unit. He did not respond to a request for comment.

It was not within the scope of the report to interview Clarkson or the other former Hawthorn staff named within it, leading them to claim they had not been afforded due process.

The proposed AFL investigation into the matter, therefore, will not merely be an exercise in crisis management, it will be expected to either vindicate the players or the coaches.

But the players will not take part in any investigation that is not entirely separate from the AFL.

The AFL chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, has flagged he may delay his departure from the role to deal with the fallout.