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The Cats struck a secret agreement with Kolodjashnij two years ago to exonerate the club from all legal responsibility for future brain trauma after he faced a concussion panel.<\/p>\n
Geelong has received a \u201cplease explain\u201d from the AFL but the club is yet to receive a sanction from the league. In a joint statement with the players\u2019 union, the AFL said the waiver had been removed. <\/p>\n
Following a series a AFL Commission meetings that excluded Drummond, league CEO Andrew Dillon told SEN radio on Saturday that the league was still seeking clarity from the Cats as to why the waiver wasn\u2019t lodged before it could act in any way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a Commission meeting Tuesday and Wednesday… Craig wasn\u2019t part of the discussions this morning given his former role as the president of Geelong,\u201d Dillon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve written to Geelong asking why the document wasn\u2019t lodged with the AFL. We\u2019re waiting to hear back from Geelong and we\u2019ll hear back from them early in the week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cats Concussion Waiver Player Named | 00:30<\/p>\n
Asked on a scope of a potential sanction, Dillon said: \u201cThere\u2019s some (punishments) that have a maximum of $20,000, there\u2019s other provisions that have sanction at large. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I don\u2019t want to get into speculating where that might go until we hear back from Geelong formally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dillon acknowledged Geelong\u2019s \u201cmistake in the process\u201d but he also respected the club had since \u201cowned\u201d the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I wish we weren\u2019t here,\u201d the AFL chief said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Geelong are owning it. Mistakes have been made but they\u2019ve been owned. I think that\u2019s also as important.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes less than 12 months after Geelong was fined $77,500 following an audit into salary cap issues and third-party payments.<\/p>\n
Asked by broadcaster Gerard Whateley if the Cats \u201cskate close to the wind,\u201d Dillon responded: \u201cLook, I wouldn\u2019t say that, but the proof will be in the pudding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we go and audit clubs, you can pick up discrepancies in non-lodgments and things like that. <\/p>\n
\u201cGeelong is a club that\u2019s been successful for a long time, they\u2019re been well ran. But no one\u2019s perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the AFL\u2019s responsibility in all of this, Dillon ultimately wants the league to \u201cbe better\u201d and \u201clearn\u201d despite a big focus on protecting players from injuries and stricter concussion protocols in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s continuing to refine the concussion panel … the work we do in concussion and what our doctors do is world class and world leading. I don\u2019t want that to get lost in all of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got independent spotters in the ARC and independent doctors on game day. We\u2019ve had coronial inquests that have given us recommendations and they\u2019ve been implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to do more … it\u2019s extremely complex, these issues. They occupy a lot of my mind and thinking and the team\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why it is such a priority for us. Because our game at all levels doesn\u2019t operate unless we\u2019ve got people playing. It\u2019s so important.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL Issues Cats a Please Explain | 01:32<\/p>\n
Dillon hasn\u2019t spoken to Kolodjashnij \u2014 only his manager \u2014 but he\u2019s \u201copened the invitation to chat to him at any stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes after Kolodjashnij said he was \u201ccomfortable\u201d with the AFL concussion panel process and \u201ccontinued playing,\u201d despite its failure to deliver a verdict on whether he was fit to do so, thus handing the case back to Geelong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not as binary as a traffic light and I\u2019m not a doctor, so I won\u2019t want to get into that,\u201d Dillon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what we do have is absolute experts on that concussion panel. One of the learnings from this will be even more increased rigour in the way we work with players who go to that concussion panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not talking big numbers of players that go and see that panel, but there are players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fronting media for the first time on Friday, Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking \u201ctook full responsibility\u201d for the club\u2019s \u201cmisstep\u201d in the process he says took place over two months to come to the waiver deal.<\/p>\n
Hocking wouldn\u2019t weigh into the delicate nature of Drummond\u2019s involvement, only saying he was \u201cexcellent\u201d during his time at the club.<\/p>\n
Drummond, who was Geelong\u2019s president at the time the waiver was signed, apologised for \u201cthe mistakes made in this very complex situation\u201d in a league statement. <\/p>\n
Full statement from Craig Drumond<\/p>\n
I was President of the Geelong Football Club in 2024. <\/p>\n
This was an extremely complex and sensitive matter, and obligations to both the player and the club were very carefully considered by the Geelong board.<\/p>\n
Jake\u2019s welfare was central to all discussions and I have been thinking of him particularly over the past few days.<\/p>\n
While the player was medically cleared to play, the club engaged in lengthy discussions including with him, his family, doctors, and insurers about his future and the potential risks of returning to play.<\/p>\n
Regardless of the player\u2019s agreement, the club went too far in adding a waiver into an informed consent document and it will be removed.<\/p>\n
The waiver did not remove the player\u2019s protections under statutory health and safety laws.<\/p>\n
As the club has also acknowledged, there was also a process failure in relation to lodgement of the agreement with the AFL and the AFLPA.<\/p>\n
I have not and will not be involved in any deliberation in relation to this matter and its assessment under the AFL rules and regulations.<\/p>\n
I apologise for the mistakes made in this very complex situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL is still seeking answers from Geelong for the \u201cvery complex\u201d Jake Kolodjashnij situation before it can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-847539","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\/847539","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=847539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}