Hawthorn legend Don Scott has cast a dark cloud over the Hawks’ golden run in the 1980s and early 1990s by claiming his club systemically cheated the salary cap.
Scott cited the alleged breaches as the reason Hawthorn were able to keep so many of the game’s greatest ever players at the club, with the club claiming the 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1991 premierships.
“Hawthorn were breaching the salary cap,” Scott said, according to the Herald Sun.
“The only reason Hawthorn held all those star players and had success was that they were paying under the cap. They had a bank account down in Tasmania and they were paying the players that way.
“They were contravening the salary cap and that is why those players stayed at Hawthorn because of the money they were receiving.
“So consequently there has got to be a day of reckoning and that came for Hawthorn.
“They were cash strapped.”
The stars that the Hawks managed to hold on to during those golden years include Jason Dunstall, Dermott Brereton, Gary Ayres, John Platten, Chris Langford, Darren Jarman, Robert DiPierdomenico, Gary Buckenara and Michael Tuck.
Scott explained how payments would be made to some players’ family members as a way to avoid detection.
“They were paying wives, they were paying girlfriends. They were doing a lot of things back then,” Scott said.
“It was like the Roman Empire (at Hawthorn). It was decadent. It is (cheating). But everyone cheats. Everyone was doing it. It was rife through the AFL.”
Scott claimed the system of cheating was “masterminded” by a number of Hawthorn administrators, all of whom have now passed away.
“And that’s why I am talking to you, because they are all dead. None of them are alive,” Scott said.
He added that the AFL’s salary cap auditor at the time had warned the club about their misconduct but no punishment was ever handed down.
Asked to reveal his source, Scott said: “No. I can’t. But it’s a very reliable source. Not Joey next door. I was friendly with the people who would know. Someone very, very responsible told me.”
The allegations were made on the ‘No Merger’ podcast, which will be released later this week.
Scott, the Hawthorn Team of the Century ruckman, was instrumental in saving the club from a narrowly avoided merger with Melbourne in 1996.