By Sam McClure, Brittany Busch, Andrew Wu and Alexander Darling
Just 24 hours after the umpires at the centre of the Lachie Schultz concussion drama were accused of providing misleading information to the AFL, the league has cleared them of any wrongdoing – citing a miscommunication with the umpiring department.
In a statement from the league on Wednesday night, the league’s football boss Laura Kane did not apologise to the umpires who originally had the finger pointed at them, but admitted the AFL’s processes “failed”.
Rob Kerr, the head of the AFL Umpires Association, spoke out in defence of the umpires involved in last week’s Fremantle v Collingwood game at Optus Stadium.
Lachie Schultz of the Magpies collapses in the hands of medical staff.Credit: Getty Images
“As part of the normal post-match review, the umpires spoke to the coaches after the game and there was a discussion about the Schultz incident,” Kerr said in a statement to this masthead.
“After the story last night, we spoke to the umpires because we couldn’t see how the narrative from last night made any sense.”
Details aired on Seven’s Agenda Setters on Tuesday night revealed the field umpires were aware of the injury to Schultz, even though an initial statement from Kane on Friday rejected that.
“Our process in determining what happened [last] Thursday night failed, and for that we take full responsibility,” Kane said.
“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.
“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.
“I have asked GM [of] football performance Josh Mahoney to review these processes to ensure the right information is communicated and to ensure this does not happen again.
“Everyone, including our umpires are aligned in ensuring the health and safety of players continues to be the upmost priority and the AFL has been in regular contact with the AFLUA today.”
Meanwhile, Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley demanded an investigation into the botched handling of the Schultz incident as a former umpire backed the officials who allowed play to continue as the Magpie lay injured on the ground.
“There’s got to be a huge inquest and time spent on this, and really open and transparent communication of what has occurred,” former Magpies coach Buckley told SEN on Wednesday. “It’s not acceptable.”
Darren Goldspink, who umpired 371 games in the top flight, said on 3AW: “Clearly the umpires saw it – the other argument is whether they did the right thing. According to the rules as I know them, it was a judgment call for them.
“I don’t know three of the umpires [Justin Power, Craig Fleer or Martin Rodger], but I umpired Simon’s [Simon Meredith] first game with him, and he is a man of high integrity.
“I can’t imagine he would have denied that incident happened. Particularly when the footage and audio is available now. Back in the day there was no audio.”
Collingwood’s head of football Charlie Gardiner said at a press conference on Wednesday the AFL had not contacted the club since Friday when it said the wrong call had been made.
“[The AFL] informed us that they felt that the right decision would have been to stop the game, and they followed that with the public position. We haven’t had any further contact after that,” he said.
Gardiner said he was “a little bit surprised with some of the internal communications” following Schultz’s concussion, but that it didn’t change the club’s opinion that play should have been stopped.
He continued: “It’s not an easy game to umpire, as we all know… I think this is a very isolated incident. I can’t talk to any of the specifics around the communications or the miscommunications. What I do know is that everyone involved in this game is absolutely committed to putting on the best possible product, to making sure that our players and our staff are looked after and are safe, and their wellbeing is paramount.”
Coach Craig McRae said he had not listened to the audio of the umpires’ conversation and brushed off concerns over the AFL’s handling of the situation, though admitted to “teething problems” and said he would be raising suggestions for improvement at a dinner with AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon and Kane next Monday.
“[There] seems to be a bit of a narrative around that, I’m not going to get caught up in it,” he said at the press conference when asked about how the AFL had dealt with the fallout.
“I have a great relationship with Laura and Andrew and I don’t have an issue at all with the way the game’s been led. I think the game’s never been in better shape. There’s little teething problems here and there, and I’m certain things that happened on last weekend, they’ll be better improved on,” McRae said.
He declined to say what issues he planned to raise over dinner.
The AFL Players Association called for protocols around on-field player safety to be tightened after Schultz’s concussion last Thursday night.
Kane took responsibility for the Schultz situation after it emerged on Tuesday night that umpires were aware the Collingwood player was lying injured on Optus Stadium, despite the AFL initially saying umpires had told the league they hadn’t seen him.
But Buckley said the on-field incident was a red herring, and after hearing the tapes thought the umpires handled the situation “perfectly”.
He said the focus should instead be on investigating who was responsible for the AFL making a false statement.
The audio of the umpires’ on-field discussion was played on Seven’s The Agenda Setters on Tuesday night in an embarrassing situation for the league.
The AFL’s footy boss, Laura Kane.Credit: Simon Schluter
“If Laura Kane has been informed [the umpires did not see Schultz] and she’s gone with it … trusting the person that has informed her, well then it needs to go down the chain to find out who came to this conclusion without doing the work [of checking the tapes] and they need to be counselled,” Buckley said.
“There’s going to be some people with egg on their faces. So go and get all that information. And whoever’s going to have egg on their face, make sure that the egg lands where it should, and then communicate that and accept responsibility for it.”
Buckley said he was angry at the lack of transparency and sceptical at the suggestion the umpires had not told the truth.
“I can’t see how four blokes could conspire to lie to their bosses after having handled the situation well,” he said.
“I’m angry. I’m agitated … It might be a bit of PTSD, when you get in a team or an organisation and mistruths are spoken or ownership isn’t taken at different levels, it throws everything into the shadows. It throws everything into disrepute.”
Schultz walked off the field last week with the help of Collingwood staff, and has since entered concussion protocols.
His situation comes after several instances in the past 12 months of controversial handling of player injuries, scenarios players’ union boss Paul Marsh said could be avoided with clearer procedures.
“It is now clear that the umpires noticed Lachie Schultz’s injury and had the opportunity to stop the play to ensure he left the field safely,” Marsh said in a statement released to this masthead.
“What this highlights to us is that the process of dealing with vital health and safety issues on the field is unclear, and there are many recent examples of the industry needing to better prepare everyone for when these situations occur.
“Equally, we are disappointed that the AFL failed to appropriately review a serious on-field incident but acknowledge that they have taken responsibility for this.
“We welcome the opportunity to work with the industry to continually strengthen health and safety protocols for our members.”
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