What is the purpose of the AFL Reports?
Since courts and tribunals began to give reasons for decisions, there has been a need and an interest for those reasons to be made publicly available, for the benefit of the public and legal practitioners. Before the advent on online databases such as Austlii and JADE, a practise of law reporting developed to make such reasons available in a format that could be widely distributed and understood.
In 2023, for the first time, the AFL Tribunal began to give brief reasons for its decisions. The purpose of giving those reasons was to help players, clubs and the public understand why the Tribunal had reached the decision that it had, and to provide some guidance as to how the Tribunal might approach similar incidents in the future.
However, the reasons of the Tribunal have only been made publicly available in snippets, on X (formerly Twitter) and on live blogs published by news reporters. The reasons are difficult to find, and without context, can be difficult to understand.
The AFL Reports hope to fill that gap, by making all decisions of the AFL Tribunal and AFL Appeals Board publicly available.
What do the AFL Reports contain?
The AFL Tribunal is a sporting disciplinary body. It is not a court of law. Other than the chair, who is typically a barrister with expertise in sports law, the Tribunal is made up of ex-players. The Tribunal provides straightforward, practical and common-sense justice to players who are charged by the AFL with offences under the Laws of the Game. It does not descend into complex questions of jurisprudence and arcane legal reasoning.
The AFL Reports take the same approach. We intend to provide brief, practical reports. Our reports summarise the incident that is the subject of the charge, the evidence led at the hearing, and the key arguments made, and provide a verbatim copy of the reasons for decision given by the Tribunal.
Where possible, we will assist with reference to other relevant decisions that are referred to by the Tribunal, or link to incidents to which the Tribunal refers. But the Tribunal is not bound by its own precedents, and we don’t think it will help readers to treat the AFL Reports as if reporting on a decision of a court of law. So, we won’t do that.
Who prepares the AFL Reports?
The AFL Reports are compiled and edited by Nicholas Baum, a barrister at the Victorian Bar. Mr Baum practises in sports law, amongst other areas, and has a particular interest in Australian Rules football. Nicholas’s professional profile is available on LinkedIn, here.
In addition to Mr Baum, the reporters for the AFL Reports include James Whitfort, a student at the University of Melbourne. Mr Whitfort hopes one day to practise in sports law. Mr Whitfort’s professional profile is available on LinkedIn, here.
How do I keep up-to-date with the AFL Reports?
Click the “subscribe now” button below to keep updated each time we publish a report.
