![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c562656ba42154b13823bbc6e0ffe6975238ab9c.jpeg\")
A case for the defence: Cats great Joel Selwood has defended Chris Scott amid the club\u2019s concussion drama.Getty Images<\/p>\nGeelong great Joel Selwood has defended Chris Scott\u2019s involvement in the Jake Kolodjashnij concussion saga, saying the premiership coach would not have known about a secret waiver.<\/p>\n
Selwood said it was unlikely that any AFL coach would have detailed knowledge of their players\u2019 contracts.<\/p>\n
A case for the defence: Cats great Joel Selwood has defended Chris Scott amid the club\u2019s concussion drama.Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [Scott] would have inklings to what\u2019s going on, but when it came to contracts, absolutely not,\u201d Selwood told 3AW.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coach would have an understanding of where the players stand on what they should be paid and who he wants and stuff like that, but he wouldn\u2019t know what a player\u2019s on.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in saying that, we are going down to the nth degree on what is in and out of a contract \u2013 a lot of them look a hell of the lot the same, and so they should. It is nearly cut and paste across the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for Chris to say he doesn\u2019t actually know the ins and outs, I actually believe it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that doesn\u2019t sit well with a lot of people, but that\u2019s just the way \u2013 it\u2019s not the coach\u2019s job to be across that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Selwood played in two premierships under Scott, the second as captain in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know people say [about me], \u2018very biased, very Geelong focused\u2019,\u201d Selwood said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[But] I had a long-running period of time with these people \u2013 Craig Drummond, Steve Hocking and management of that football club \u2013 and for a mistake to happen as simple as handing in paper, you do say, \u2018Yep, not good enough\u2019. And they will get a fine or whatever it is, but I do (believe they) have the duty of care for the player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that that would have been at the forefront, knowing Craig, and knowing Steve really well.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since the issue broke last week, Kolodjashnij has not been available for AFL or VFL selection.
The AFL Commission has engaged James Peters, KC, to help decide the outcome of the league\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n
AFL Legend Leigh Matthews said a coach would not ask for extra information if he was told by a club doctor during the season that \u2018you can\u2019t select\u2019 a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the senior coach would say, \u2018well, I don\u2019t want to know why\u2019,\u201d Matthews told 3AW.<\/p>\n
\u201c20 years ago now, well over that, the club doctor at the Lions said \u2018so and so, don\u2019t play him. I\u2019ll let you know when you can play him\u2019. I think he might have been smoking a bit of weed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that was the issue, and basically, \u2018I\u2019ll let you know when it is out of his system. Just don\u2019t ask why\u2019. So, you just did what the doctor suggested, you just didn\u2019t pick him for a few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was in the pre-season, admittedly, it was in February, but nevertheless, sometimes you don\u2019t ask the question. [I] never spoke to him [the player] about it. That was the thing, it was a doctor-player confidentiality [thing].<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the doctor is saying is, \u2018Don\u2019t pick him\u2019 \u2013 because he might get drug tested, clearly, and it would be in his system for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong great Joel Selwood has defended Chris Scott\u2019s involvement in the Jake Kolodjashnij concussion saga, saying the premiership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-855919","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\/855919","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=855919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}