‘Getting sued by your missus? It doesn’t get much worse than that,’ one former AFL player told me over coffee this morning.
Hold on to your footy scarves – because this may only be the beginning.
At the (broken) heart of this matter is a marriage break-up. Cate Sayers is suing her estranged husband, former Carlton president Luke Sayers, for defamation – allegedly because he tried to blame her for the d**k pic saga that forced him to resign last year.
It’s understood she also alleges he made damaging claims about her mental health.
But the alleged defamatory statements at the heart of this matter weren’t made on social media or in a newspaper; they were instead allegedly made behind closed doors, by Luke Sayers, as he fought for his footy job during an integrity review.
That makes this a PR and governance clusterf***for AFL House, which is already in a state of flux following a major executive reshuffle.
‘Getting sued by your missus? It doesn’t get much worse than that,’ one former AFL player told me over coffee this morning of the Luke Sayers legal drama. (Mr Sayers is seen in April 2024)
Luke and Cate Sayers (together left, with Brian Cook and wife Claire Schultze in 2024) split after his d*** pic scandal last year, but may reunite in court after she sued him for defamation
Sayers vs Sayers would surely be the most watched civil trial of 2026. But will it go ahead?
Luke will be doing everything to avoid it and, given that divorce proceedings are imminent, one wonders whether Cate really wants a trial that will drain the available asset pool.
And then there’s the possibility for public embarrassment. Perhaps the sort of deeply intimate and total mortification currently being felt by the Beckham family.
There’s no doubt this case will attract more attention than the Grand Final, if it makes it to court.
To recap: Luke was the president of Carlton when a picture of a penis was posted to his X account in January 2025. If that wasn’t bad enough, the tweet tagged a female corporate executive who worked for BUPA, an official partner member of the Blues.
The post was live for a full 13 minutes before it was deleted, with Luke later claiming that his X account had been hacked.
He also told the Daily Mail at the time: ‘This is outrageous. I’m investigating and will leave no stone unturned finding out who did this to me and my family.’
The whole debacle unfolded while the Sayers were in Italy together. By April, it emerged that Cate had left her husband.
After an official investigation by the AFL, it was found that the businessman’s phone had been ‘compromised’ by an undisclosed third party. Hacked, in other words.
Luke will be doing everything to avoid going to court and, given that divorce proceedings are imminent, one wonders whether Cate really wants a trial that will drain the available asset pool
‘The AFL had so many problematic angles to tie up here,’ a source with in-depth knowledge of the matter told me on Thursday.
‘There was an allegation of [impropriety]. There were integrity issues. There were issues regarding the AFL’s attitudes towards women. They needed a way to make this make sense.’
Enter Sharon McCrohan.
McCrohan is one of Melbourne’s most formidable communications managers, having led the media strategy for two ALP Premiers.
‘No one is tougher than Sharon. Her professional aura is that of a bulldog crossbred with a rottweiler,’ a former Liberal opponent told me.
Luke Sayers, the former CEO of PwC Australia, retained McCrohan who guided him through the crisis. He made a sworn statement to the AFL Integrity Unit and was later cleared of breaching the league’s code of conduct.
Soon after, Sayers resigned as Carlton president.
It would seem AFL House was so impressed with McCrohan’s work that she was appointed Executive General Manager of Corporate Affairs in August.
But they perhaps hadn’t counted on Cate Sayers defending her position. Now that she is, things are about to get messy again.
‘This was supposed to be a neat bow for the AFL to tie the whole matter up. Instead, that bow has been torn apart,’ a friend of Cate’s told me.
For months, Cate was trying to get her husband’s statement about the matter from the AFL – and after encountering some resistance, she finally succeeded.
Luke Sayers retained Sharon McCrohan (pictured), one of Melbourne’s most formidable communications managers, who guided him through the crisis. In August, McCrohan was appointed the AFL’s Executive General Manager of Corporate Affairs
After reviewing it, she concluded that it unfairly suggested she may have posted the d*** pic, something she vehemently denies. (The Daily Mail does not suggest that she posted the lewd image or that Luke Sayers accused her of doing so.)
She also believes Luke made damaging claims about her mental health in the statement, which will form part of her defamation case, should it go to trial.
McCrohan is now facing questions about what she knew – scrutiny that will surely be unwelcome as she tries to establish herself as one of the most powerful women in AFL House.
Last year, I exclusively revealed in my column for the Mail that one casualty of McCrohan’s appointment was Government and Stakeholder Relations Executive Jude Donnelly. AFL media manager Kate Hutchison also left her job in recent weeks.
‘That’s Sharon cleaning house. It’s going to be very interesting to see how long she lasts in that role,’ a former AFL manager told me.
‘She’s going to find some challenges with the clubs.’
The d**k pic scandal may also expose the impotence of the AFL Integrity Unit.
I’ve heard that Cate Sayers was not interviewed as part of the investigation – so what was done to verify that Luke didn’t post the photo himself?
Was the phone’s metadata analysed? Was the photo put through software that could ascertain where it was taken and on whose device?
How was a definitive conclusion drawn that he did not post the explicit image?
These are all questions to which I don’t claim to know the answer – but will no doubt be heavily scrutinised should Sayers vs Sayers make it before a judge.
Privately, AFL sources have defended the Integrity Unit, saying the group works hard across a wide brief of public complaints, ranging from match-fixing to players’ behavioural issues, including drug-taking – and everything in between.
The unit comprises ten full-time staff members, who all have backgrounds in law enforcement and security. I am not suggesting they are incompetent, by the way.
Still, mystery remains about exactly how they operate. Why? Because there is little to no transparency about their process. Rarely – if ever – does an AFL investigator speak publicly.
Luke Sayers’ consulting business is understandably nervous about the litigation, too. I’m told his staff have frantically been calling clients trying to shore up their relationships.
Before his stunning fall from grace, Mr Sayers was among Melbourne’s most well-connected men, calling both Dan Andrews and Josh Frydenberg close friends.
He was also said to be part of the state government’s ‘Approved Millionaires Club’ – a pack of successful businessmen with significant influence around town.
It doesn’t come much more influential than that. And it’s surely thanks to these connections that his supporters haven’t deserted him entirely. Nor have his children, who I am reliably informed are living with their father.
I contacted several Carlton board members on Wednesday to better inform this article, but none responded.
They included Patty Kinnersly, CEO of Our Watch, who was involved in the club’s ‘Carlton Respects’ schools program, aimed at challenging gender stereotypes and promoting respectful behaviour.
Our Watch is a major advisory partner in the AFL’s social positions.
In the AFL ‘Respect and Responsibility’ policy, AFL CEO Andrew Dillon writes: ‘We are committed to providing safe and welcoming environments so that everyone, particularly women, can enjoy the social, physical, mental and emotional benefits of participation in football.’
If this case goes to trial, it’ll surely pose the question: does that include Cate Sayers?
