'Not acceptable': Nathan Buckley calls for investigation after AFL left with 'egg on their faces'
Updated . First published
AFL chief Andrew Dillon has launched a full investigation into the umpire communication debacle which rocked the league on Tuesday night.
When the umpires were initially criticised for not stopping play during Collingwood's win over Fremantle to allow the clearly concussed Lachie Schultz to safely make his way from the field, head of football Laura Kane released a statement confirming that the officials simply hadn't seen the forward go down.
However the umpires are mic'd up to the host broadcasters and select radio networks, and so the on-field audio is widely available.
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Play continues as Collingwood player Lachie Schultz lies on the ground. Fox Footy
Channel Seven aired the audio from the Schultz incident on Tuesday night.
That audio revealed that the umpires did, in fact, see Schultz, with one umpire saying "got an injured player in the middle. I'm watching. We are OK. We are OK".
When a player later in the game questioned why play hadn't been stopped, he was told by an umpire: "We can only stop the play if the ball is coming near or if they instruct us to".
The new story from Kane is that the umpires gave the AFL "wrong information" regarding whether they'd seen Schultz initially.
"The statement we released was incorrect, but we were given the wrong information from the umpires," a statement provided to Seven on Tuesday night read.
"It's inconsistent with the vision.
"They (the umpires) were going off memory and not the vision and we should always look at the vision.
"All the field umpires from the game have all been coached this afternoon that they should have stopped the game.
"(The error) is on me (Laura Kane). It's the footy department that runs umpiring and that sits with me."
AFL football boss Laura Kane. via Getty Images
However, it has seemingly gone further up the chain, with Dillon telling Eddie McGuire of his disappointment later in the night.
"Laura Kane has come out and said the buck stops with her, it's her fault. I've spoken to Andrew Dillon tonight. He is having a full investigation," McGuire told Nine's Footy Classified.
"He is really disappointed that the system broke down, that is that his departments didn't go to the audio tapes, which were available in real time.
"Not only that but the (radio stations) would've had access to it.
"When it comes to the umpires, they need to be held accountable to a higher level. They had to tell the AFL what was going on.
"Even if you pick up the paper (the day after the game) and ring and tell them. Not hope that that it goes away.
"This strikes to the very integrity of the game. We don't want to overbake the cake on this. These are experienced umpires, they needed to be brought in and told."
Lachie Schultz fell after initially trying to run from the field. Getty
Having listened to the released audio, McGuire believes the umpires actually handled the situation reasonably well, even factoring in the mistake not to stop the game.
"I look at that vision and the umpires seem to have it under control. Had they come out and said 'we had it under control and once we realised that we could stop the play, he was off the ground anyway'," he said.
"I think people would've gone 'OK, next time stop the play' and we would've been good.
"Now there is going to be a royal commission into this."
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has backed calls for an investigation into the situation, given the clear issues in the AFL's communication chains.
"There's got to be a huge inquest and time spent on this, and really open and transparent communication of what has occurred," Buckley told SEN.
"It's not acceptable.
"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, and they need to be counselled.
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley AFL Photos via Getty Images
"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."
Essendon great James Hird believes this is a clear case of a communication breakdown internally at AFL headquarters.
"It feels like Richard Nixon's Watergate in that the cover-up was worse than the crime," Hird said.
"It feels like the AFL works in silos. There's no communication within the AFL.
"The cover-up, the umpires aren't telling the football department what is going on? If I was the AFL Commission, I would be filthy at how bad the AFL has been made to look by this incident.
"Not by what the umpires did. They're in the field of play. They made a decision in real time where you can make mistakes. What's happened afterwards, it just looks like the AFL is clumsily making decisions."
Schultz will miss this weekend's clash with Adelaide as he remains in concussion protocols.
