Swans fan here, so am aware our clubs haven't always seen eye to eye.
But so you know (assuming you are aware), no neutral clubs would be blame you at all for this Clarkson Hawthorn stuff, North have operated with integrity for some time now, so I'm at least confident you wouldn't have known about the allegations when you hired him.
Hope you somehow find a way to come out ahead in all of this. Felt sick to my stomach reading the ABC article earlier.
I am 100% confident Sonja had no idea about the allegations, regardless of them being truthful or not.
Even if you take morality out of the equation, purely from a self-interest point of view hiring Clarkson in full knowledge of the existence of this ticking time bomb of a ****ed up secret (not to mention while Hawthorn were actively conducting an investigation into racism within their club) would be an absolute bone headed career killing move. It simply would not be worth the risk.