the league and players\u2019 union released a statement<\/a> saying the waiver had been removed, and any future arrangements would need to be approved by the AFL and AFLPA.<\/p>\n\u201cThe AFL is satisfied that the letter was not used by Geelong to allow a medically unfit player to return to play,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
But the lack of penalty has reportedly angered rival clubs, and led to questions over who knew what and when in regards to the contract.<\/p>\n
Geelong coach Chris Scott.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThe AFL has tonight ruled that there is no penalty for the Geelong Football Club despite a secret deal with one of its players to make him liable if he suffered further brain trauma \u2026 It set off a chain of events that have included extreme scrutiny on the AFL\u2019s commission boss \u2013 who is Craig Drummond. He was then the Geelong president,\u201d AFL journalist Jon Ralph said on Fox Footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also seen white hot anger from rival clubs I\u2019ve spoken to today who believe that once again Geelong\u2019s able to skate on a lineball incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most recent last year in the third party deals which the AFL audited.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL premiership winners David King and Cam Mooney shared their thoughts, with both echoing their \u201cdisappointment\u201d in the secret deal.<\/p>\n
King reacts to Cats concussion agreement | 01:03<\/p>\n
\u201cMy immediate reaction is if there\u2019s nothing to hide, step us through what happened,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow it went from point A to B to C and we find ourselves here.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s involved, what was signed and what was forwarded up the chain and where did it finish?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s nothing to hide, step every club through it, step the fans through it. If there\u2019s something to hide, tell us nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep getting told player safety is paramount \u2026 and then we find loopholes and signing off on loopholes that don\u2019t meet that standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat for me is the major concern that it got to this point \u2013 so how did it get to this point?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf no other club can do it, step us through what went wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ex-Geelong Cats President Craig Drummond with club CEO Steve Hocking pictured together in 2022.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first reaction was \u2018God, I hope it\u2019s not my club!\u2019 And turned out it was,\u201d Mooney shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately what we\u2019re seeing on paper \u2013 and until we now the actual details and who knows what we\u2019re going to get on the back of that \u2026 clearly the lawyers are digging deep on this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour first reaction is what we\u2019re seeing and what we\u2019re hearing now it\u2019s just complete disappointment, it really is.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL head trauma sign-off | 02:10<\/p>\n
Ralph said the fact the deal involves a couple of senior AFL identities \u2013 including Drummond and former AFL footy boss, now Cats CEO Steve Hocking, made it a \u201ccautionary tale\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are important people,\u201d Ralph said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s inexplicable because this was never going to be a legally enforceable document \u2013 you didn\u2019t need Erin Brockovich to try and rip this one apart in court!<\/p>\n
\u201cThis player involved, he also had been ticked off by the AFL\u2019s independent concussion panel \u2013 the same panel that medically retired the likes of (Angus) Brayshaw and also Nathan Murphy.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s very strange and again more questions than answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
A statement was issued by Drummond late on Thursday evening, stating: \u201cThis matter was complex, sensitive and very carefully considered by the Geelong board at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club has today addressed the reasons for decisions in relation to the player and the appropriate changes it will make going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cConcussion is a challenging medical and legal issue for all contact sports globally, and the AFL and our clubs will continue to prioritise the health and safety of all of our players.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL Commission Chair Craig Drummond and AFL Chief Executive Officer Andrew Dillon.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Ralph said clubs were frustrated by Geelong\u2019s lack of penalty \u2013 given what we\u2019ve seen the AFL dish out for other offences.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarlton was fined $75,000 over the Elijah Hollands conduct<\/a> \u2013 player health and safety. Did they do the right thing by this person, did they put him in danger? Now again, it\u2019s not a perfect comparison but it shows you how readily the AFL is prepared to sanction its football clubs \u2013 and again, having spoken to a lot of football clubs, they say why does Geelong get away with another line ball incident when we get hauled over the coals, get significant fines over a fifth careless umpire incident and Geelong at this stage according to the AFL, will certainly skate on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s \u201cwhite hot anger\u201d from rival AFL clubs after confirmation Geelong won\u2019t be penalised for their secret concussion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-846309","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\/846309","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=846309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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