![\"Jon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/b41a40c453ab3b0ce85a012a2f2e71470a51efea.png\")
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March 14, 2026 \u2014 4:49pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon has defended the integrity of his new corporate communications boss, who was an adviser to former Carlton president Luke Sayers during a lewd picture scandal.<\/p>\n The well-connected Sharon McCrohan is still settling into her new role at AFL headquarters, having been Sayers\u2019 spin doctor last year amid the lewd photo scandal which has seen Cate Sayers launch defamation proceedings against her estranged husband in the Victorian Supreme Court.<\/p>\n McCrohan was an adviser to Sayers when he was investigated by the AFL integrity unit after an explicit image of a penis appeared on his X account in January last year, tagging an executive at health insurance giant Bupa.<\/p>\n The post was removed about 15 minutes later, with Sayers claiming he had been hacked. He later said the photo had been taken for medical purposes.<\/p>\n The AFL cleared Sayers and closed the investigation after he provided a statutory declaration to the league. He quit as president of the Blues shortly after.<\/p>\n Related Article Dillon, in a series of radio interviews on Saturday, denied the AFL\u2019s investigation had been tarnished by the explosive claims made by Luke and Cate Sayers in court.<\/p>\n \u201cNot at all,\u201d Dillon said on 3AW.<\/p>\n In court, Sayers has alleged his former wife stole emails, texts and photographs from his phone and used them to launch defamation action against him after he provided personal information about her to the AFL investigation into who posted the lewd photo.<\/p>\n Asked if McCrohan had also been tarnished by her role in the saga, Dillon replied: \u201cNot at all.\u201d<\/p>\n McCrohan did not respond when contacted by this masthead on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cAgain, Luke and Cate are going through whatever they are. There is a court process going on. But I will absolutely stand by the integrity investigation,\u201d Dillon said.<\/p>\n \u201cLuke is no longer the Carlton president. He is no longer under the purview of the AFL.\u201d<\/p>\n In the documents filed in the Supreme Court, Cate Sayers alleged her estranged husband told the AFL\u2019s integrity unit and Carlton officials in his statutory declaration that she had accessed his account without his knowledge and posted \u201ca photograph of Luke\u2019s penis on his X account\u201d.<\/p>\n She claimed she was defamed by the statement because it implied she was \u201cmentally disturbed\u201d.<\/p>\n Cate Sayers also alleged in her statement of claim that Luke Sayers asked AFL investigators not to interview his wife or contact Victoria Police, effectively shutting her out of the probe and \u201cremoving any opportunity for Cate to respond to the allegations made by Luke in it\u201d.<\/p>\n In his defence, filed this week, Luke Sayers alleged he and his wife were the only people with knowledge of the photograph before it was posted online.<\/p>\n He alleged that a day after the lewd photo was published online, Cate Sayers \u201csaid to Luke words to the following effect: \u2018Let\u2019s see how you get out of this one\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n During a brief hearing on Friday, lawyers for Cate Sayers pushed for the claims to be heard by a jury in a five-day trial slated for November.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Cate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/c66f2af9b00381225ed0f5ebfd205dcbebf91e28.jpeg\")
Cate and Luke Sayers at the Brownlow Medal ceremony in September 2024, three months before the photo scandal erupted.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Luke](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1c076332c00bd95ca6b76b39aa7fdb5d37cd42f6.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Jon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773472229_978_b41a40c453ab3b0ce85a012a2f2e71470a51efea.png\")
Jon Pierik<\/a> is a sports journalist at The Age. He covers AFL and has won awards for his cricket and basketball writing.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 14, 2026 \u2014 4:49pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-539468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}