TENSIONS between Hawthorn and Brisbane almost boiled over on AFL Grand Final day last year when Hawks CEO Justin Reeves and Lions boss Greg Swann first spoke about the racism review that implicated Lions coach Chris Fagan, among others.
AFL.com.au's Damian Barrett revealed on Thursday morning that Reeves and Swann engaged in "a volatile exchange" at half-time of the Grand Final between Geelong and Sydney, which was "as tense a conversation as two people, I think, have ever had in footy".
News of the historical allegations by some of Hawthorn's Indigenous players that they had been mistreated at the club had broken three days before the Grand Final. The allegation were contained in a Hawthorn review and prompted the AFL to launch an independent investigation that is yet to conclude its work, five months on.
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Barrett told the AFL Daily podcast on Thursday that some witnesses to the conversation were concerned the tense words could have erupted into a physical confrontation.
"As far back as Grand Final day last year, there was a coming together of Justin Reeves, the CEO of Hawthorn, and Greg Swann, the CEO of Brisbane. This is three or four days after the story was made public," he said.
"From what I can tell there had been no contact between Hawthorn and Brisbane, certainly no heads-up that they'd done the investigation and this was the outcome of it.
"Justin Reeves approached Greg Swann, thinking he could open up a civil conversation and just said something like 'How's the week been?' or 'How are you?' and this was witnessed by many people ... and it was as tense a conversation as two people, I think, have ever had in footy with what unfolded on that particular occasion at half-time of the Grand Final.
"It was a volatile exchange and one that people felt was going to end up a whole lot worse than a vigorous disagreement of a verbal nature. Now, nothing happened by way of a physicality but there was a fear, [from] people who did see it, that that was going to be the case.
"Now, Greg Swann held himself together and ultimately they parted, but that hasn't dissipated, I can tell you that. I've spoken to pretty much every club right now and I'll leave it for the clubs themselves to express their views on the public record but I know what the sentiment is when it's off-record and it's not favourable at all to Hawthorn."
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson and Brisbane coach Chris Fagan, who were implicated in the initial Hawthorn review, have both strenuously denied any wrongdoing or misconduct.
Both stood down from their roles in the immediate aftermath of the allegations being made public, but have since resumed coaching their teams throughout the summer as they co-operate with the independent investigation.