According to SEN’s Sam Edmund, the umpire who missed the call, James Strybos, will umpire the VFL match between Williamstown and Footscray.

Strybos has umpire at AFL level since 2023, and had umpired five previous matches in the 2025 season.

Bombshell report claims star Docker seeking trade

Fremantle star Luke Jackson is set to request a trade back to Melbourne at the end of the season.

According to a bombshell report in The West Australian, the 23-year old ruckman, who departed the Demons in 2022 to join the Dockers on a whopping seven-year deal, wants out just three years into his contract, amid rumours of off-field personal issues.

“The West Australian understands Jackson wants to return to the Demons – where he won a premiership in 2021 – on the back of significant off-field issues which himself, the club and management have addressed in recent weeks,” the report reads.

That contract, which doesn’t expire until 2029, is set to give the Dockers significant bargaining power in any potential trade, with Demons forward Kysaiah Pickett – who has been rumoured to be keen on a move to Western Australia and even reportedly messaged Fremantle players earlier this year saying he would be wearing purple in 2025 – all but certain to form part of any trade, despite Dees president Brad Green remaining adamant Pickett is a required player.

Jackson, who barracked for the Dockers as a child, grew up in Western Australia and played representative football for the state as a junior before being selected by the Demons with pick 3 in the 2019 national draft.

After debuting in the COVID-interrupted 2020 season, he broke out spectacularly as a 19-year old in 2021, claiming the AFL Rising Star Award and appearing in Melbourne’s drought-breaking grand final win over the Western Bulldogs, playing a crucial role in the ruck during the Demons’ famous third-quarter burst that saw them overturn a 19-point deficit to win by 74 points.

Luke Jackson. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

He sought a trade at the end of the 2022 season which netted the Dees pick 13 and Fremantle’s first and second-round 2023 draft picks, but things have not turned out as planned for Jackson or the Dockers since the high-profile move was made.

After a breakthrough finals series in 2022, the Dockers have missed September in consecutive seasons since Jackson joined the club, and are off to a poor 4-5 start in 2025, with frequent criticism of the club’s use of Jackson and Sean Darcy as dual rucks.

The 23-year old’s personal life has also proved troublesome, with SEN reporting earlier this year Jackson and girlfriend Kelsey Browne spent much of the off-season with Browne’s family on the Victorian surf coast.

It was initially reported in March Jackson was interested in a return to Victoria, with the Demons and Geelong among several clubs keen to lure him back across the Nullarbor.

Dockers coach Justin Longmuir dismissed trade rumours earlier, responding ‘Nothing’ when asked at a press conference whether his views on Jackson remaining at the club had changed.

However, Demons captain and Jackson’s premiership teammate Max Gawn cryptically hinted at his return to red and blue colours in an appearance on Triple M on Monday.

“WA is an unbelievable to place to be when you’re 18, 19 … these Perth boys go back at 22 and all their mates have sort of grown up a bit,” Gawn said.

“There’s so many people that got a trade back to WA and then came back – not mentioning one that potentially could be coming back soon … let’s hope!”

‘Blatant lie’: AFL, umpires slammed as audio reveals mistruths in Schultz concussion response

The AFL and its umpiring department are under fire after exclusive audio on Seven’s The Agenda Setters revealed a ‘blatant lie’ in the league’s reporting of Collingwood forward Lachie Schultz’s concussion.

Schultz was knocked out late in the third quarter of the Magpies’ win over Fremantle on Thursday night after a nasty collision with Jordan Clark, with play controversially allowed to continue as he first lay motionless on the Optus Stadium turf, then staggered from the field with the assistance of Magpies trainers.

On Friday, the AFL released a statement saying the umpires ‘did not see’ Schultz being concussed.

“Upon review, if umpires were aware, play would have been stopped when [Josh] Daicos had possession in the middle of the ground,” the statement reads.

However, umpire mic audio reveals the four umpires – including veteran pair Craig Fleer and Simon Meredith – discussed Schultz immediately following the incident, with an umpire even explaining to a Magpies player that they weren’t able to stop play.

“We can only stop it if the ball’s coming towards … or if they instruct us to stop. I understand, but that’s what we’re instructed to use,” the umpire said.

On The Agenda Setters, reporter Caroline Wilson revealed the league and AFL general manager Laura Kane were only made aware of the audio when contacted by her, saying the four umpires were ‘strongly counselled’ on Tuesday afternoon, with the umpires’ reason for the misreporting given as them having ‘had no memory of seeing the incident’.

Kane released a new statement to the program admitting the error.

“The statement we released was incorrect, but we were given the wrong information from the umpires. It’s inconsistent with the vision,” the statement reads.

“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.

“Having said that, this is on me. It’s the footy department that runs umpiring and that sits with me.”

In response, former greats Luke Hodge and Kane Cornes were scathing of the umpires, with Hodge deeming it a ‘blatant lie’ and Cornes calling for significant suspensions to be handed out.

“You can’t say they didn’t notice because there was communication, so at least two of them knew what was going on, while the other two focused on the play. Then they have blatantly lied,” Hodge said.

“That was the biggest thing to come out of that football game … for the umpires to say they couldn’t remember that, I find that very hard to believe.”

Cornes believes the AFL needs to ‘make a statement’ against the four umpires, who ‘shouldn’t be umpiring for a month’.

“If four umpires have all forgotten the same biggest incident of the weekend, I would be absolutely shocked at that,” he said.

“In an era where we suspend players for tackles for three weeks … if this isn’t the biggest sanction to an umpire that’s been handed down in recent memory, I think these guys shouldn’t be umpiring for a month.

“Collingwood should be ropeable, Lachie Schultz should be ropeable, his family should be ropeable and I would be absolutely staggered if those four umpires umpire again in the next month.”