Luke Sayers\u2019 camp says he is standing firm behind what he told the AFL, that there\u2019s been no backtracking on his version.<\/p>\n
If this was merely a spat between a wealthy couple, one of whom was the immediate past Carlton president, amid a hostile break-up, the AFL could wash their hands of it entirely.<\/p>\n
But the Supreme Court filing creates the possibility of some further embarrassment, and the fact that the league\u2019s newish communications and government relations supremo, well-connected ex-ALP staffer Sharon McCrohan, advised Sayers during the scandal is another awkward wrinkle for the league.<\/p>\n
Whatever happens in court action or in mediation managed by costly lawyers, the AFL might not merely consider how it fell into this mud but also ponder the role \u2013 and remit \u2013 of its integrity unit.<\/p>\n
The league might also ask itself this plain question: how far should we go in policing or probing the private behaviours of individuals who happen to be either players or officials at clubs?<\/p>\n
The integrity unit, as first conceived, investigated matters pertaining to the running of a clean football competition \u2013 drugs, gambling, cheating and tanking (see Melbourne, 2012). Over time, it expanded into the social realm to include racial and\/or homophobic incidents.<\/p>\n
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Why was the integrity unit investigating the dick pic posting? Sayers was then Carlton president, and it was seeing if he had breached the AFL rules, including the convenient catch-all of \u201cbringing the game into disrepute\u201d.<\/p>\n
But did the league really need to activate the integrity unit here? Naturally, the party line back when the scandal surfaced was that it had to investigate because Luke Sayers, the ex PwC chief executive, was at the helm of the Blues.<\/p>\n
The league had been pressured, implicitly, by persistent complaints from the AFL Players Association that officials \u2013 often coaches, but sometimes maverick presidents \u2013 had been treated leniently, ie not investigated or suspended\/fined, for offending comments or remonstrations.<\/p>\n
The AFL has a Respect and Responsibility policy to deal with offensive behaviours towards women, which, irrespective of whether it provides justice for mistreated women, at least has a clear process.<\/p>\n
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Respect and Responsibility (very Jane Austen-sounding, yes), more than a decade old now, is triggered by complaints. If there is no complaint, there is no investigation. And the league is naturally bound to inform the police if there is say, an allegation of sexual assault or another criminal action.<\/p>\n
In this Sayers case, there was no complaint that we know about, from any party.<\/p>\n
One of the problems the AFL faced early in 2025 when the pic and story became last summer\u2019s answer to Lachie Neale\u2019s more current marital travails on footy\u2019s gossip-meter was this: how would it have handled a player in this position?<\/p>\n
I would venture, however, that if Bailey Smith can evade AFL and club sanction<\/a> for sexist remarks or postings on social media (such as to my colleague Caroline Wilson<\/a>), the league did not necessarily need to jump into the Sayers pit, which, if not bottomless, has not yet reached its bottom.<\/p>\n Luke Sayers might have wished to defend himself, and to cauterise the wound to his reputation by telling his version to the AFL.<\/p>\n But he could also make statements as a private citizen, without any AFL involvement.<\/p>\n The AFL\u2019s integrity unit, helmed by a highly capable ex-cop in Tony Keane, is often viewed as a quasi-judicial body, when it really is only an internal organ of a sporting competition and events management business. It has no legal standing, although players and officials are bound to cooperate with it while they\u2019re in the system.<\/p>\n Did the AFL learn about its limitations, that it is not the United Nations of Australian sport, during the Hawthorn racism saga?<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n There, the AFL erected a costly edifice to investigate the allegations from First Nations ex-players and officials, only to end up in another, more appropriate domain, the Human Rights Commission, after finding no case against the former Hawk officials and leaving all parties \u2013 accused, accusers and club \u2013 without a happy outcome.<\/p>\n Sayers might have spared himself the current grief had he quit the Carlton presidency swiftly, not long after the pic was posted (and taken down). Granted, resigning immediately might not look good, given he\u2019d already been in the dock, before the Senate hearing, during the PwC scandal.<\/p>\n But quitting then, and averting a Supreme Court writ from his estranged wife, would have spared all parties, not least the AFL, of more unwelcome exposure.<\/p>\n