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The AFL has punished Geelong for their high-profile “mistakes” in managing head injury risks with a vulnerable player, and has warned an identical waiver to that signed by Geelong and Jake Kolodjashnij will not be accepted if it was lodged today.

The league fined the Cats $100,000 on Thursday for failing to inform it of a change to Kolodjashnij’s contract, previously described as a “waiver” by AFL Commission chair and former Cats president Craig Drummond.

The sanction also activated a $40,000 suspended fine applied to Geelong for salary cap-related breaches last year, leaving the club with a $140,000 penalty to be paid into the AFL’s injury and support fund. The Cats recorded a profit of $1.7m last year.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said a concussion waiver like Kolodjashnij’s would not be approved were it to be lodged with the AFL and AFL Players’ Association (AFLPA). “It can’t happen and it won’t happen,” he said.

The issue of waivers, or at least how clubs and doctors mitigate their exposure to liability, will not be going away, however. Dillon flagged a review with the AFLPA into how to manage this risk in the AFL.

“The challenge that’s facing the industry as a whole is how risk is looked at, how the insurance is looked at, and how the safety net for the players and officials is looked at, so, that’s where we’re at now,” he said.

The clause in Kolodjashnij’s contract was drafted and signed after the defender was not fully cleared by the AFL’s concussion panel in 2024, and followed consultation about potential risks of returning to senior football with the player, his family, doctors and insurers. The waiver was set aside by Geelong in the days after its existence first became public.

The AFL Commission found the Cats did not intend to conceal the agreement, however, in accepting the recommendations from an investigation by Kings Counsel James Peters.

The Commission’s statement issued on Thursday flagged waivers may still have a place in the game , saying the report “made no adverse findings in relation to the club’s decision to enter into an agreement with the player to mitigate its legal exposure”.

Commission member Paul Bassat said despite the sanction for the “unauthorised variation”, Geelong had acted with the health and safety of its players in mind.

“It is clear this incident goes beyond the breach of lodgement rules, and has raised broader issues to do with informed consent in playing contact sport and the paramount responsibilities for players’ health and safety,”

“Working with the AFLPA, medical experts, and other stakeholders, the AFL will have more to say on these significant policy matters.”

The sanction exceeds recent fines issued by the AFL, including the $77,500 penalty to the Cats for salary cap breaches, of which $40,000 was suspended, and the $75,000 fine handed to Carlton for their mismanagement of Elijah Hollands’ mental health episode.

The amount, however, is minimal compared to the compensation likely to be sought by past players as they pursue the football industry in a head injury-related class action, with former Cat Max Rooke as lead plaintiff, which includes more than 100 former AFL players and is expected to go to trial next year.

There has been widespread criticism directed at Geelong for developing the waiver which has also enveloped the AFL given Drummond, the former Cats president, became chair of the AFL Commission in March.

Drummond has already apologised for “the mistakes made in this very complex situation”.

“Regardless of the player’s agreement, the club went too far in adding a waiver into an informed consent document and it will be removed,” he said earlier this month.

Drummond removed himself from the AFL’s deliberation on the matter.

The controversy around the waiver had driven speculation about the identity of the initially unnamed player, prompting Kolodjashnij to out himself as AFL player who signed the agreement. The Cats defender criticised the media for revealing his private medical information.

The 31-year-old has played 11 games for the Cats this season after he missed the entire home-and-away season in 2025, but has not played a senior match since the round 18 loss to GWS early last month.