Over in Australia, the Australian Football League (AFL) is under mounting fire to walk the talk. This follows recent concussion incident with player Lachie Schultz. Save the date — Round 10 is coming up fast! The league announced that four umpires—Simon Meredith, Craig Fleer, Martin Rodger and Justin Power—will work as crew chiefs during the matches. This follows a series of confused reports about what umpires knew of Schultz’s situation during play.
Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters uncovered that the umpires were well aware of Schultz’s dangerous predicament on the field. They clearly knew exactly what they were doing. This is in direct contradiction with the AFL’s original statement that they had not witnessed Schultz, who lay unconscious on the field, go on to die. In a far-reaching blunder, Laura Kane, the AFL’s football boss, admitted there was an almighty mixed messaging from the umpiring department. This error led to the inaccurate public announcement that was issued Friday.
Kane stated, “Today we have determined there was a miscommunication from members of the umpiring department, not the field umpires, which formed the basis of our initial public statement on Friday.” She stressed that their process broke down in properly evaluating the move and took complete ownership over that lapse.
The AFL’s first statement led to outrage because it was so misleading. In response, Kane issued a surprising third statement on Wednesday, apparently to keep walking back the initial conflation. “Our process in determining what happened Thursday night failed and for that we take full responsibility,” she added. Kane doubled down on the importance of communicating clearly between team members. Yet he has counseled them to appreciate the life-saving value of sticking to protocols all of the time during major incidents.
Later this round, Simon Meredith will referee the match between Collingwood and Adelaide. In addition, as in previous years, Craig Fleer will take charge of the match in which Port Adelaide hosts Geelong. Martin Rodger will be in control of the Saturday night Essendon vs Western Bulldogs clash. At the same time, Justin Power will referee the match between Sydney and Carlton.
The incident has highlighted issues that have enraged players, coaches, and other stakeholders in the AFL community. Theo Doropoulos called the punt “a self-inflicted blow” that had Laura Kane “red-faced.” Charlies Gardiner said in the internal communications reaming out the officers involved in creating the incident. He did indicate surprise but once again reiterated their pledge to halt play when Schultz was taken down. What did take me aback were some of the communications on the inside, Gardiner continued. In our view, it does not alter our position that even recently should have led to that play being whistled dead that night.
The AFL has taken immediate steps to address this controversy. It is committed to ensuring that no such lapse ever occurs again and is committed to player safety above all else.
