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“If Eddie feels that’s the case then sure, that’s certainly something that should happen,” Goodwin said on Thursday.
“This experience sits with him and he needs to heal and I think part of that process is everyone making sure they learn and grow and say sorry.”
Betts felt let down by the lack of action from the AFL.
“I told them everything,” Betts told AFL 360 of the AFL’s original investigation on Wednesday night.
“I just felt like my voice wasn’t being heard and I felt like I needed justice.
“It did hurt at first when nothing was done. And so ... obviously we did get an apology from Tim Silvers [on Wednesday] and I felt like justice is served.”
When asked whether he should receive an apology from the AFL, Betts replied: “I think that’s one of the easiest things to do is say sorry. They acknowledged [the pain]. But the easiest thing to do is say sorry.
“When they came out and [acknowledged the pain] about the Aboriginal players, it wasn’t only the Aboriginal players. The easiest thing would be for the AFL to come out and to apologise to all of us players.”
Marsh said he had been in contact with Betts and other Crows players multiple times since the camp, but was left with the impression that nothing was significantly awry, something he now admits was incorrect.
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“We first became aware there may be an issue around this camp from the media and off the back of that, we started contacting players to see if there was anything to this and certainly the initial feedback we were getting from players was that there was nothing to it and in fact, a number of players had a view that it was a really good camp,” Marsh said.
The organisation has promised to recontact impacted players to discuss their experiences in 2018.
AFLPA president Patrick Dangerfield, who has been the association’s president since 2018, said the revelations were “sickening”, but defended the organisation’s handling of the situation.
“I don’t necessarily agree with the fact that we didn’t do anything,” Dangerfield said on 3AW on Wednesday.
“I think we exhausted a lot of our resources around how we could support the players. But at the same time, you need that open, free-flowing communication between two and that was a challenge.”
Dangerfield said he believed players at the camp were wary of sharing their experiences in detail due to their allegiance to the club, stressing that the AFLPA “pressed” several players on the issue and received little cause for concern from their responses.
“As much as we could, and as best we could, [we] got the information that was relevant. Had we known all the information from the outset, I think, clearly a more immediate reaction would have taken place. But that wasn’t the case.”
With AAP
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