Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nHawthorn head of football Rob McCartney fronted the media before coach Sam Mitchell on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
McCartney defended Moore and Macdonald, claiming they were \u201coutstanding citizens\u201d outside the overseas misdemeanour.<\/p>\n
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 08: Jack Ginnivan, Connor Macdonald, Dylan Moore and Massimo D’Ambrosio of the Hawks pose for a photo during the 2024 AFL Round 13 match between the Hawthorn Hawks and the GWS GIANTS at UTAS Stadium on June 08, 2024 in Launceston, Australia. (Photo by Dylan Burns\/AFL Photos)Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always knew this had the ability to be a story and I think we managed that extremely well throughout the process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDylan spoke yesterday and he said how bitterly disappointed he was in his behaviour in that moment.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2026 those two boys in particular have been outstanding citizens over the journey of their time at our club and even before our club.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a matter of, we obviously needed to deal with the enormity of it in the initial instance but then we had to make sure there was significant wellbeing and care being put around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey accepted the consequences that would come with the behaviour, they were extremely remorseful right from day one, they showed a willingness to accept the behaviour they had shown would come with consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen they showed a willingness to re-educate and I don\u2019t think we can ask for much more post the event.\u201d<\/p>\n
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 7: Dylan Moore of the Hawks is tackled by Lachie Whitfield of the Giants during the 2026 AFL Opening Round match between the GWS Giants and the Hawthorn Hawks at ENGIE Stadium on March 7, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
McCartney said Moore understood why Hawthorn needed to make a leadership change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a collective conversation, he knows that isn\u2019t the behaviour that aligns with a leader who has the title of vice-captain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a conversation we had collectively, it was an easy decision to make in the end based on the behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt the consequences we looked at, there was some financial sanctions, with Dylan the leadership obviously, and then there was some community service and some re-education.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt that was absolutely fair and reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell said he was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d upon first hearing the news but said both players had put their best foot forward since.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a big part of us that have moved on. But we understand they made some really poor decisions,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard about it while they were still there and still in the middle of it and they\u2019ve kept us in the loop the whole way through.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some conversations behind closed doors about our expectations and standards and behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut to their credit, every moment before and since, they\u2019ve acted in a way you would hope they would as representatives of this football club, the game itself and their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall they\u2019re really good young lads and the decisions you make will dictate the life you lead. This is a little hard patch for their lives because of some decisions they\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hawthorn is adamant the overseas arrest of Dylan Moore and Connor Macdonald is a momentary lapse rather than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,2095,5888,264109,64,63,689,55,639,9372,218845,264381,12111,1119,1127,2105,264111,7492,264383,8401,11296,12152,24580,78677,647,7198,264382,673,2041,2067,677,264379,264378,264380,29169,12936,85,670,2801,64414,2614,660],"class_list":["post-532523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-arrest-details-revealedafl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-community-service","tag-connor-macdonald","tag-drunken-arrests","tag-dylan-moore","tag-football-club","tag-fox-footy","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hawks-arrest-details","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-hawthorn-head","tag-jack-ginnivan","tag-lachie-whitfield","tag-launceston","tag-leadership-change","tag-massimo-dambrosio","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-willson","tag-momentary-lapse","tag-new-south-wales","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-off-season-arrests","tag-outstanding-citizens","tag-overseas-arrest","tag-phoenix","tag-sam-mitchell","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-tasmania","tag-tyler-lewis","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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