{"id":578223,"date":"2026-08-08T04:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578223\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:28:15","slug":"afl-boss-craig-drummond-apologises-over-geelong-concussion-waiver-the-club-went-too-far-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578223\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL boss Craig Drummond apologises over Geelong concussion waiver: \u2018The club went too far\u2019 | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL Commission chair and former Geelong<\/a> president, Craig Drummond, has apologised for \u201cthe mistakes made in this very complex situation\u201d over the secret concussion deal the Cats made with player Jake Kolodjashnij.<\/p>\n

Drummond also confirmed he will not be involved in any AFL<\/a> assessment of the case, which emerged on Thursday, while the AFL chief executive, Andrew Dillon, refused to say on Saturday whether the commission chair should stand down from his position during the investigation.<\/p>\n

Dillon expects Geelong to formally respond by early next week after the AFL issued the club a \u201cplease explain\u201d for the secret deal made with Kolodjashnij.<\/p>\n

Geelong struck an agreement with Kolodjashnij<\/a> in 2024, when he took on legal responsibility for any potential future head trauma.<\/p>\n

Drummond, who became commission chair in March, was Geelong\u2019s president and on the club board at the time the deal was signed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was president of the Geelong football club in 2024,\u201d the AFL chairman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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

\u201cJake\u2019s welfare was central to all discussions and I have been thinking of him particularly over the past few days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 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

\u201cRegardless of the player\u2019s agreement, the club went too far in adding a waiver into an informed consent document and it will be removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club scrapped the waiver<\/a> on Thursday, while the AFL released a statement the same day saying it did not approve the deal.<\/p>\n

The AFL did not penalise Geelong<\/a> though the Cats\u2019 chief executive, Steve Hocking, did not rule out a sanction<\/a> while taking responsibility for Kolodjashnij\u2019s waiver on Friday.<\/p>\n

Kolodjashnij went public on Friday evening<\/a> to defend the club that he has now played 200 AFL matches with and the process that led to him continuing his career.<\/p>\n

Drummond said the waiver did not remove Kolodjashnij\u2019s protections as a player under statutory health and safety laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the club has also acknowledged, there was also a process failure in relation to lodgement of the agreement with the AFL and the AFLPA [AFL Players\u2019 Association],\u201d Drummond said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI 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

\u201cI apologise for the mistakes made in this very complex situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillon said the situation was \u201ccomplex\u201d while speaking on radio on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve got here is an issue we\u2019re dealing with and it\u2019s at the AFL executive level \u2013 Craig hasn\u2019t been involved in any deliberations,\u201d Dillon said on 3AW.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting information from Geelong and then we\u2019ll deal with it that way. I\u2019m the CEO and I take the responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillon said earlier on Saturday that he believed the Cats were \u201cowning the situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ownership that Steve has taken, Craig\u2019s statement that he\u2019s put out earlier, Grant McCabe [Geelong\u2019s current president],\u201d he said on SEN.<\/p>\n

\u201cMistakes have been made but they\u2019ve been owned, and I think that\u2019s also as important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL Commission chair and former Geelong president, Craig Drummond, has apologised for \u201cthe mistakes made in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-578223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}