Updated ,first published
The AFL has refused to buy into the acrimonious legal dispute between ex-Carlton president and PwC boss Luke Sayers and his estranged wife Cate, despite threats that the league will be dragged into the affair.
The league’s statement to this masthead on Thursday comes days after News Corp reported that Cate Sayers would subpoena correspondence between top AFL figures and members of Luke Sayers’ camp during the league’s investigation into the publication of a lewd image to the former Blues president’s X account in January last year.
Cate Sayers has launched legal action against her estranged husband in the Victorian Supreme Court, suing the high-profile business figure for defamation and breach of confidence.
She has alleged that in his account of the incident given to the AFL’s integrity unit during its investigation, her husband defamed her and breached her confidence by disclosing information about her private life, including her sexual history and medical information.
The league’s investigation found that Sayers account had been “compromised” and he was not responsible for posting the image. It found he had not breached AFL rules, but he resigned as Carlton president within a fortnight.
“Across January 2025, the AFL investigated the matter to understand if Mr Sayers had breached AFL rules as a registered official, in his then role as Carlton president,” AFL spokesman Jay Allen said in a statement on Thursday.
“The AFL’s jurisdiction is confined to registered officials and the potential breach of any AFL rules.
“The AFL stands by its process in relation to this matter.
“Mr Sayers is no longer a registered AFL official. This matter between Mr and Mrs Sayers is currently before the courts.”
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon recently defended the integrity of his new corporate communications boss, Sharon McCrohan, who was an adviser to Luke Sayers during the lewd picture scandal.
The well-connected McCrohan served as Luke Sayers’ spin doctor as he was investigated by the AFL integrity unit after an explicit image of a penis appeared on his X account last year, in a post that tagged an executive at health insurance giant Bupa.
“Luke and Cate are going through whatever they are. There is a court process going on. But I will absolutely stand by the integrity investigation,” Dillon added in a radio interview.
The X post was removed about 15 minutes later, with Sayers claiming he had been hacked. He later said the photo had been taken for medical purposes.
The AFL cleared Sayers and closed the investigation after he provided a statutory declaration to the league.
Lawyers for the former Carlton president and his estranged wife have traded legal blows in a series of court filings in recent weeks, in what would be a blockbuster trial in November if the parties cannot reach a prior settlement.
In her statement of claim, Cate Sayers alleged she was defamed by her estranged husband’s statutory declaration because it implied: “Cate suffers from mental illness and has been prescribed medication by her doctors which she periodically refuses to take, such that her denials about posting the explicit photo from Mr Sayers’ X account cannot be trusted”.
“The information was used to present her as unstable, untrustworthy, erratic, mentally disturbed and/or presenting as a live risk to her own safety,” her statement of claim alleged.
In a defence filed with the court, Luke Sayers accused his estranged wife of taking documents from his mobile phone. He alleged that after the photo was posted on his X account, she told him words to the following effect: “Let’s see how you get out of this one.”
“At all relevant times Luke genuinely and reasonably believed that there were grounds to suspect that Cate published the medical photograph via the X post without Luke’s knowledge or permission; and Cate’s denials about posting the medical photograph cannot be trusted,” his lawyers submitted.
In the latest salvo, lawyers for Cate Sayers last week said that she was not “anywhere near him or his phone at the time of publication of the X post”, and that Luke Sayers had not provided the photo in question to a medical practitioner nor sought medical advice about it.
“Further particulars will be provided after discovery and interrogatories and subpoenas to relevant parties,” her lawyers added, setting the stage for the legal battle to expand to senior AFL figures involved in the league’s investigation of the saga last year.
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Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.Connect via X or email.