AFL investigating Geelong star Tom Hawkins’ phone use during lightning break

The AFL is investigating why Tom Hawkins was seen using a mobile phone in the MCG changerooms during the lightning delay on Easter Monday.

The AFL is investigating whether Tom Hawkins’ use of a mobile phone to check the weather radar during the lightning delay was a breach of its integrity rules.

Geelong’s 350-game hero was handed a phone by a Cats official in the MCG change rooms during the extended three quarter-time break on Easter Monday.

The Herald Sun has confirmed that the Cats official was one of the club’s authorised device users.

“I wanted to get a look at what (weather) was coming our way. It certainly wasn’t my phone,” Hawkins told Channel 7.

But the AFL will still need to run its process to determine whether Hawkins and the Cats have broken strict integrity protocols.

The league was made aware of the incident as soon as it was broadcast and started making inquiries immediately after the game concluded.

Hawkins and fellow key forward key forward Jeremy Cameron used the rest of the 41-minute delay to warm up with a cup of tea and coffee.

Tom Hawkins on the phone during the lightning break at the MCG on Monday.

“I said to ‘Jezza’ there’s one way to warm up here and he looked at me and he knew exactly what I was talking about,” Hawkins told Fox Footy.

“So we popped into the little tea and coffee room for a Moccona and just chewed the fat for a bit.

“It was interesting watching different players walk around the rooms looking for things to do.”

In 2021 the Herald Sun revealed that every club was allowed 10 “authorised device users” after multiple AFL coaches were pictured with their mobile phones in the box.

Shortly after that report, Collingwood was fined $20,000 after Jordan De Goey and Jeremy Howe retrieved their phones in the rooms during a game.

Howe and De Goey had suffered match-ending injuries and were alerting family and friends the extent of their injuries.

But the phones should have been locked away and Magpies were in breach of Rule 30, which bans the use and possession of communications devices during a game.

The 10 authorised device users ensures club doctors and team managers can make emergency phone calls.

An additional four media staff are also allowed to use their phones.

All other officials and players must hand in their mobile devices when they arrive at AFL grounds for integrity purposes. They are locked away until after the match.

The threat of using mobile phones during games centres around the possibility of match fixing because sensitive information could be fed to the outside world and used for gambling purposes.

Other sports have tougher anti-corruption regulations and would not allow 20 officials (10 per club) to carry mobile devices during matches.

The NRL only permits a club’s director of football, chief medical officer and a trainer to carry a phone in restricted areas, which covers the dressing rooms, tunnel and playing surface.

All NRL coaches are banned from carrying their phones unless they have applied for and received an exemption before the match.

Similarly, Cricket Australia has watertight restrictions on mobile devices in the ‘PMOA’ (Players’ and Match Officials Area) and a logbook is used to ensure such storage is accurately recorded and monitored.

Phones permitted in the PMOA have to remain on silent while doctors must ensure their laptops are password protected.

Cricket Australia classifies a mobile device as any portable device — including smart phones, smart watches and tablets — which is capable of connecting to or using mobile telecommunications technology to enable or facilitate transmission of textual material, data, voice, video or multimedia services.

In 2022 the Herald Sun revealed that the AFL had granted Paddy McCartin special permission to use a mobile phone during matches after TV cameras captured him using a phone on the field after a goal.

That was courtesy of a technological breakthrough that allowed McCartin, a diabetic, to measure his blood sugar levels through an app.