Former NRL judiciary chairman and ⁠NSW District Court Judge Paul Conlon⁠ joins ⁠Tim Fuller⁠ and Matt Krog for a frank conversation about how sport judges its own.

The episode covers Lachie Neale's grand final week tribunal fight, the NRL's no-fault stand-down policy, the Cronulla ASADA saga and Shayna Jack's anti-doping case.

Paul brings more than four decades in criminal law and eight years at the head of the NRL judiciary to the rules that make or break athletes' careers.

Paul explains how the old three-player NRL judiciary actually worked. He describes the advice he gave ahead of Billy Slater's famous shoulder charge hearing, and he explains why he believes the current two-person panel is pushing clubs to take early pleas rather than risk a hearing.

He is candid about why he does not like the no-fault stand-down rule and why he is wary of codes relying on untested police statements of facts. He also argues that voluntary assumption of risk makes US-style mass concussion litigation unlikely in Australia.

On anti-doping, Paul looks back on the 2013 "blackest day in sport" announcement, the fight for disclosure in Shayna Jack's case, and USADA chief Travis Tygart's call for case-by-case treatment of inadvertent low-level positives.

To close, each of them makes a call on the week ahead. Tim backs Lachie Neale to beat his ban and farewell the Lions in the grand final. Matt says Kylian Mbappé's cash and equity deal with On signals a new era of athlete entrepreneurs, and the complex advice those deals will demand. Paul, a proud Blues man, tips New South Wales to spoil Darius Boyd's debut as Queensland coach.

Tim Fuller is Special Counsel at⁠ Bennett & Philp⁠. He has Court of Arbitration for Sport experience and was part of Shayna Jack's legal team. Matt Krog is the founder of ⁠Aus Sports Law ⁠and represents NRL players in judiciary hearings, contracts and tribunal appeals.

Follow ⁠The Field of Law⁠, if you enjoyed this conversation, and send us the sports law question you want answered next.

This episode is general commentary and education only. It is not legal advice. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a qualified legal practitioner.

Foxtel Group Senior Legal Counsel ⁠Calli Tsipidis⁠ joins sports lawyers ⁠Tim Fuller⁠ and ⁠Matt Krog⁠ to explain who really owns sports content in Australia, and how broadcasters protect it. Calli is the 2026 ⁠Lawyers Weekly⁠ Media & Telecommunications Lawyer of the Year and works across Fox Sports, Kayo, Binge and DAZN.

She takes us inside the legal build behind Club Kayo, the new creator network spanning NRL, AFL, cricket and motorsport.

She explains how creators are vetted and contracted at speed, what they can and cannot film at the ground, and why vertical video may become its own category of media rights in future broadcast deals.

Also in this episode, Cricket Australia's push to privatise the BBL and what private equity means for grassroots cricket, and the Josh Addo-Carr roadside drug test allegation, including why sports treat illicit drugs so differently to prohibited substances under anti-doping rules. Follow

⁠The Field of Law⁠ so you never miss an episode, and send us your questions or topic ideas on⁠ LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠ and⁠ Facebook⁠

The Field of Law provides general commentary and education only. Nothing in this episode is legal advice.

You paid for a ticket. In law, that buys you a licence, not a right, and it can be revoked on the spot.

Tim Fuller and Matt Krog open the doors on what really governs a day at the sport.

In this episode of The Field of Law, two practising sports lawyers decode the week in sport and the law behind it.

They unpack Club Kayo and the content-creator boom reshaping broadcast rights, the second-hand smoke doping question raised by the cannabis haze at the US Open, and the almost ninety-year-old High Court case, Cowell v Rosehill Racecourse, that still decides your rights when you walk through the gate.

They also cover pitch invaders and player liability, Braith Anasta stepping away from his player-agent accreditation and the conflicts of interest behind it, the Football Australia and APL referees' strike, and the transgender-eligibility fight moving through the US courts and toward Australia.

Follow The Field of Law on Spotify so you never miss an episode, and share it with someone who loves sport and argues about the rules.

The Field of Law offers general commentary on sport and the law. It is not legal advice.

Tim Fuller and Matt Krog put the week's biggest sports law stories under the legal blowtorch, starting with former Test cricketer Will Pucovski's concussion claim against Brighton Grammar School and what a school's duty of care to a minor actually covers.

They break down the landmark Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling in Göthberg v Lazio, where a pregnant footballer won compensation despite never signing a contract, and what FIFA's maternity regulations, the Masters v Cameron principle and the privacy of medical information now mean for clubs.

They also weigh UEFA's criminal mismanagement move against FIFA through the Swiss and US courts, the field of play principle behind a controversial QAFL finish, and the consent questions running through sports documentaries, from Danny Rose at Spurs to the Ettingshausen defamation case.

This podcast is general commentary and analysis, not legal advice.

The Sydney Swans have stood five players down for the rest of the season.

Tim Fuller and Matt Krog leave the police investigation where it belongs and dig into the sports law question everyone is asking: how can a club stand down players who have not been charged with anything?

The answer sits in one clause.

Tim and Matt break down the disrepute clause, sometimes called the morality clause, how it is drafted, why the wording decides everything, and why sponsors can hit pause on a deal long before a court says a word.

They cover the two parallel tracks of a police matter and a contract matter, the illicit drug policy questions circling the story, and the very real defamation risk for anyone posting their own version of events online.

Then the money. Swedish private equity giant EQT is set to take a controlling stake in the Melbourne Storm at a reported $150m to $200m valuation. Tim and Matt unpack what a capital raise actually means, why global investors are buying into Australian sport, and what the Wrexham story tells us about treating a club as just another asset.

Plus, natural justice in sporting tribunals, the Van Royen biomechanics appeal, and whether NRL coaches should move to standard employment contracts.

This is two practising sports lawyers talking shop.

Follow The Field of Law on Spotify so you never miss an episode, and tell us where you land on the Swans stand-down over on Instagram and LinkedIn.

The Field of Law is general commentary on sport and the law. It is not legal advice.

A Geelong player signed a document the AFL never saw. Two practising sports lawyers unpack why that document may not survive contact with Australian law.

Tim Fuller and Matt Krog open the first episode of The Field of Law with the story dominating Australian sport: the so-called concussion contract at the Geelong Cats.

A waiver, a release of liability, and an acknowledgement signed by a player with a documented history of head knocks, sitting outside the AFL collective bargaining agreement and never lodged with the competition.

They work through the questions that actually matter. Can a club contract out of its statutory work health and safety obligations? What happens to the player's ability to bring a future claim now the waiver has been withdrawn but the acknowledgement remains?

How did confidential health information, protected as sensitive information under the Privacy Act, end up in the public domain? And the question nobody has asked: if the player was medically fit to play, why was a letter required at all?

Before the case, Tim and Matt explain how they got here. Matt was in the Brisbane Broncos elite development program until a spinal injury at 16 ended his career and left him temporarily paralysed. Tim spent ten years as a PE teacher in the era before salary caps and collective bargaining agreements, in a game where you worked and played.

Also in this episode: whether run it straight events fall under combat sports legislation in New South Wales, and in Queensland the contest would operate under contest rules only and not specific legislation. Plus the Alligator Blood case, where a 2020 stewards inquiry was reheard in July 2026 after six years of litigation.

This episode is general commentary and analysis. It is not legal advice and does not create a lawyer-client relationship.