That is, the Australian Football League (AFL) until this year. It is rightfully backtracking from its initial claim that umpires failed to give improper information in a serious injury situation during a recent game. This clarification comes in the wake of considerable public pressure over how the league handled the release of Lachie Schultz’s contract. He collapsed following a collision with Jordan Clark that knocked Harris out of the game at the end of the fourth quarter.
Charlie Gardiner, the club’s official, stated that there were no “formal” discussions regarding the issues raised over the past week. He acknowledged the first awful messaging, which came not from the field umpires themselves, but from the AFL’s umpiring department. This lack of communication and understanding was key to determining the AFL’s first public response, released last Friday.
Events Leading to the Miscommunication
Lachie Schultz’s injury came at the worst possible time in the match. Concern was immediate from both players and fans alike. As Schultz went down, trainers immediately rushed to help her off the field. Gardiner was shocked by the lack of communications inside the AFL, stating that it was important to have avenues of communication.
“I was a little bit surprised with some of the internal communications (at the AFL),” – Charlie Gardiner
The AFL decided its field umpires were not to blame for failing to identify Schultz’s status. Rather, it was a failure to communicate, from the umpires’ union, that led to the lockout. Gardiner added for clarity that the league had originally been incorrectly informed about whether umpires had observed Schultz get hurt.
“But from our perspective it doesn’t really change our position, which was we felt like on the night that play should have been stopped,” – Charlie Gardiner
AFL’s Response and Accountability
Laura Kane, the AFL’s head of inclusion, apologized for the miscommunication, and emphasized that umpires had actually seen Schultz in the middle. Still, she said the league took the wrong information in at first. This miscalculation caused them to make a public error in announcing that officials had not witnessed the injured player.
Above all, Kane placed the urgent emphasis on continuing to practice health and safety measures. This is crucial, particularly in light of the recent public outcry about the league’s handling of many of these occurrences. She indicated that team members involved in this miscommunication have been counselled and reminded of the importance of following proper procedures.
“Those team members have been counselled and reminded of the importance of ensuring our process is fully followed regarding these types of incidents and in this instance it was not,” – Laura Kane
In the aftermath of this incident, Gardiner expressed that since then, communication with the league has been minimal. His comments about lack of engagement since then, since-forth-heard-from, officials at the time, indicative of continuing frustrations from deep within the club.
“But we haven’t had any further contact other than that,” – Charlie Gardiner
Moving Forward
As we noted last week, Gardiner and Kane are committed to improving communications between team management and the league. They are moving to act in response to these revelations. Kane mentioned her colleague Josh Mahoney has been tasked with ensuring that such miscommunications do not happen again in future incidents.
The AFL’s handling of health and safety protocols remains under scrutiny as they work to restore confidence among teams and their supporters. It’s going to take strong lines of communication to keep players safe and healthy on the field in the future.
