The timing was as poor as it was inevitable. On the very day the Hawthorn Football Club should have been rejoicing at the selection of a plucky small forward with pick five in the national draft, and at bringing home the sons of two former stars, the Hawks were instead drawn back into the unresolved scandal of the recent past.

This should have been a time to focus on regeneration. A time when the Hawks enthused over Nick Watson, dubbed the “Wizard of Waverley” on the club’s website, and a haul of draftees that also includes Will McCabe, son of former Hawk and current football director Luke, and Calsher Dear, whose late father, Paul, won the 1991 Norm Smith Medal.

Former Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has clashed with his successor, Andy Gowers.Credit: Digital artwork: Stephen Kiprillis. Photos: Justin McManus, Wayne Taylor

With an influx of young talent to aid the team’s promising growth under coach Sam Mitchell, there should have been further cause for optimism, with soil to be turned and construction to commence on the Hawks’ new Dingley home before the next men’s season begins. A formal announcement will be made by the club soon.

You could be forgiven for feeling a hint of déjà vu. Almost exactly a year ago, before a bitterly fought board election, the club made a similar announcement after signing with a builder, ADCO Constructions, and declaring construction of the Kennedy Community centre at the sprawling 27-hectare site would commence in February.

Since then, the president, board members, football director and CEO have changed. Complex pre-construction issues such as methane gas extraction and water drainage have been dealt with.

The imminent turning of the first sod at Dingley is a moment of symbolic significance for a club eager to present itself as forward-looking. Instead, the Hawks this week had to deal with more public fallout from the 2022 cultural safety review, in which former First Nations players and their families alleged they were mistreated by former Hawthorn staff, all of whom have strenuously denied the allegations.

A 2022 artist’s impression of the proposed Hawthorn training and community centre at Dingley.Credit: Hawthorn FC

The latest flashpoint was about life membership for former president Jeff Kennett. He had qualified under the club’s constitution but was told by new president Andrew Gowers that the board had decided that while he would get his life membership, it was inappropriate for it to be awarded now, while an AFL investigation continues into the club’s handling of the cultural safety review, also known as the Binmada Report, and while legal matters flowing from it remain unresolved.

The blow-up was a reminder that Hawthorn remain a club manacled to the trauma of their recent past.