{"id":896290,"date":"2026-09-18T07:38:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T07:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896290\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T07:38:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T07:38:21","slug":"rita-panahi-sayers-case-a-lost-chance-to-bring-transparency-and-accountability-to-afl-hq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896290\/","title":{"rendered":"Rita Panahi: Sayers case a lost chance to bring transparency and accountability to AFL HQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cate Sayers had the rare opportunity to expose the inner workings of the AFL.<\/p>\n

She could\u2019ve brought a measure of transparency and accountability to League HQ but alas she appears to have bottled it accepting an apology from Luke Sayers in the Supreme Court last Friday.<\/p>\n

She sued her former husband for defaming her by suggesting she was responsible for posting an image of his flaccid penis on X.<\/p>\n

The former Carlton president\u2019s apology barely registered given the matter was finalised during the blockbuster NFL game at the MCG.<\/p>\n

Sayers\u2019 barrister said on his behalf: \u201cI acknowledge the extreme hurt and harm caused to Cate Sayers by suggesting she posted or may have posted (the explicit photo) \u2026 I accept she did not do this. To the extent I may have suggested otherwise, I apologise unreservedly to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AFL, and its humorously named \u201cintegrity unit\u201d, together with the Carlton Football Club will be enormously relieved.<\/p>\n

Neither wanted this case in an open courtroom where the actions of their respective representatives would be scrutinised.<\/p>\n

Of particular interest would be any communication between Luke Sayers\u2019 team and the AFL before the league cleared him of wrongdoing by accepting the fanciful notion that someone else, specifically Cate, was responsible.<\/p>\n

The Herald Sun\u2019s Mick Warner revealed that a draft of Luke Sayers\u2019 statutory declaration had been received by AFL integrity unit boss Tony Keane some six days before his sworn statement was submitted.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more the crisis manager, Sharon McCrohan, who sent that unsigned stat dec to the AFL would soon become the league\u2019s head of corporate affairs.<\/p>\n

It appears the boys club is happy to accept girls as long as they play by their shady rules. <\/p>\n

\"Rita<\/a>Rita Panahi<\/a>Columnist and Sky News host<\/p>\n

Rita is a senior columnist at Herald Sun, and Sky News Australia anchor of The Rita Panahi Show and co-anchor of top-rating Sunday morning discussion program Outsiders.<\/p>\n

Born in America, Rita spent much of her childhood in Iran before her family moved to Australia as refugees. She holds a Master of Business, with a career spanning more than two decades, first within the banking sector and the past ten years as a journalist and columnist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cate Sayers had the rare opportunity to expose the inner workings of the AFL. She could\u2019ve brought a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[457739,403231,465453,465458,465471,434072,58003,638,419415,465454,378727,377929,465450,465470,64,63,55,639,154102,2460,434684,223403,465477,363115,327342,29732,465473,27237,428127,465455,465469,25965,465474,465464,465461,282297,236591,465452,279253,457715,465466,465451,378066,85,463756,3018,407567,379302,465468,465472,465462,465465,465457,377667,457695,465476,465459,280721,376785,465475,465460,285970,465463,465456,382268,80063,465449,465467,323432,465448],"class_list":["post-896290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-s-apology","tag-s-head","tag-s-mick-warner","tag-a-draft","tag-a-lost-chance","tag-a-measure","tag-accountability","tag-afl","tag-afl-hq","tag-afl-integrity-unit-boss-tony-keane","tag-an-apology","tag-an-image","tag-an-open-courtroom","tag-any-communication","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-barrister","tag-case","tag-cate","tag-cate-sayers","tag-corporate-affairs-it","tag-dick","tag-dick-pic","tag-girls","tag-her-former-husband","tag-herald-sun","tag-his-behalf","tag-his-flaccid-penis","tag-his-sworn-statement","tag-integrity-unit","tag-its-humorously","tag-last-friday-she","tag-league-hq","tag-luke-sayers","tag-measure","tag-particular-interest","tag-rita-panahi","tag-sayers","tag-sharon-mccrohan","tag-some-six-days","tag-someone-else","tag-sports","tag-statutory-declaration","tag-team","tag-the-actions","tag-the-afl","tag-the-blockbuster-nfl-game","tag-the-boys-club","tag-the-carlton-football-club","tag-the-crisis-manager","tag-the-explicit-photo","tag-the-extent","tag-the-extreme-hurt-and-harm","tag-the-fanciful-notion","tag-the-inner-workings","tag-the-league","tag-the-matter","tag-the-mcg-sayers","tag-the-rare-opportunity","tag-the-supreme-court","tag-their-respective-representatives","tag-their-shady-rules","tag-this-case","tag-transparency","tag-transparency-and-accountability","tag-unsigned-stat-dec","tag-wrongdoing","tag-x-the-former-carlton-president"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896290","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=896290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}