Before the Footy (08/08/2026)

The one thing that was apparent to me this week, Matt, there is an absolute moral vacuum at the heart of the AFL.

Now, people may well have suspected that over recent years where money and manipulating politics seems to be their number one priority.

The health of the game comes a long second.

The health of the players within it Come along third after that.

But the revelations about Geelong revealed by Jay Clark in the News Limited media this week.

Jay Clark used to work in Perth, actually, in the good old days when News Limited used to send people to Perth for a year to help learn their apprenticeship.

He was over here years ago and I had a bit to do with him.

Then he seemed like a pretty good operator.

He has... revealed, I think, probably what is going to be the biggest story in Australian football since the Essendon drug saga of a decade and a bit ago, because it goes to any number of things.

One, the concussion.

That's an issue.

Clearly, that's a growing issue.

There's a joint action underway at the moment with players seeking compensation for the brain injuries that they suffered from their time in football.

there is the handling of concussions at the moment which the afl appears to be completely wishy-washy about there's no real commitment to an absolute protection of players and then the bigger issue and this is the one that's come to the fore at the moment is the governance issue when you've got the president of a club involved in a cover-up that president now goes on to become chairman of the afl the very body that has to investigate what happened in regards to Jake Kolodashny, the Geelong player, who signed a waiver that he wouldn't sue anyone if he got injured again and couldn't play football.

I suspect that that waiver was not worth the paper that it was printed on.

And when Tom Percy comes on in half an hour or so, that'll be one of the key questions for him.

What is a waiver worth? I suspect it's worth nothing.

You can't... contract out your liabilities, your legal liabilities.

But I think this matter has been so revealing about the conspiracy that goes on behind the scenes to protect the brand.

That's what it's about.

And Craig Drummond, the AFL chairman, who was president of Geelong when this happened, They said it went to Stephen Hawking said it went to the very top of the board.

The board ticked it off.

They were across every part of it.

That means Craig Drummond ticked off effectively a waiver that has no value and is completely immoral.

It's putting the interests of the club and the league ahead of the player.