Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
You're arguing about semantics and wording and bits and bobs.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
And I think it comes back to lots of other things.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
We have to be comfortable with getting things wrong.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
And we will live with that.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
But if someone just said, hey, these are all the facts.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
You've discussed it in a forum.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
I, whoever is appointed with such thing, who has a huge history in the game and understand the rule, understand the big picture goes, I will give you X weeks.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
Done.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
And that's all we can do.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
We have to trust that system.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
And if they get it wrong by a week or two or $5,000 or whatever it is, we'll get wrong with it.
Whateley
The state of the AFL's tribunal & appeals board system | The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis (29.04.26)
But I don't think we should be brought down by the semantics that comes with lawyers when it gets so far removed from the essence of the game.
Whateley
Whateley in a Snapshot | Wednesday (22.04.26)
Unfortunately, we've seen suicide, there are divorces, there's financial distress, there's mental health issues.
Whateley
Whateley in a Snapshot | Wednesday (22.04.26)
All these things that we're seeing across the plethora of players at the moment.
Whateley
Whateley in a Snapshot | Wednesday (22.04.26)
And if we come back to mental health, which to me is probably the number one, we go, well, what are the systems in place?
Whateley
Whateley in a Snapshot | Wednesday (22.04.26)
Yep, every club has two PDMs, one in charge of sort of like the indigenous part of the program, the other broadly.
Whateley
Whateley in a Snapshot | Wednesday (22.04.26)
And then we also generally have a psychologist.
Whateley
Whateley in a Snapshot | Wednesday (22.04.26)
If you look at what's on their remit, two PDMs, play development managers, sorry, just doesn't get it done with what's required.
Whateley
Whateley in a Snapshot | Wednesday (22.04.26)
If you want to incorporate mental health and making sure players are attuned to that, it doesn't seem like it's cutting it.
Whateley
Whateley in a Snapshot | Wednesday (22.04.26)
And then I think, what about our psychology programs?