The AFL Players’ Association claims it has been kept in the dark for more than six months about the league’s plans to review the clinical care of - and financial assistance for – past players who suffered long-term effects from concussion and other career-ending injuries on the field.
In a submission to the federal parliamentary inquiry into concussion in sport, the players’ association claimed that the AFL has so far failed to provide a timeline or details on what it plans to do to look after injured former players, despite pledging to take urgent action on the matter after its review into the work of its former concussion adviser, neurologist Paul McCrory.
The review came following numerous allegations of academic plagiarism that were levelled at McCrory and reporting by Guardian Australia asking what had become of the concussion research that McCrory led on behalf of the league.
The review’s findings were released in October last year, with the AFL apologising to past players involved in the league’s research.
When it announced its revised concussion strategy on 14 March, the AFL also announced it had been working with law firm Gordon Legal to examine the options for an expanded financial assistance scheme for former players who suffered serious injuries, including those relating to concussion.
The announcement was widely understood as an acknowledgment that there was a need to provide support for the increasing cohort of former players who were found to have developed or were suspected of developing the debilitating neurodegenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and experiencing other long-term effects of brain injury.
The federal senate inquiry into concussion in sport was established in the wake of increasing public concern, including ongoing reporting by Guardian Australia, about sporting organisations’ management of player head injuries, and the large and growing body of scientific evidence showing links between repeated exposure to head injury in contact sports and CTE.
But the AFLPA’s submission, dated 31 March, ahead of its expected appearance at a hearing of the inquiry this month, suggested the AFL had stalled on fulfilling its commitments to past players.
Regarding the new approach to the clinical care of past players, the AFLPA said: “At the date of these submissions, we are yet to be provided with a formal response from the AFL on the timeline or details for actions and implementation.”
On the matter of the financial assistance fund, they had “asked the AFL for information on the outcomes of the review on numerous occasions but have not yet received any information”.
The AFL has been approached for comment.
The submission also revealed new information about the rate of player concussions, gleaned from the as-yet-unreleased results of the 2022 player survey.
Nearly a quarter of players in the AFL’s men’s league said they had received a concussion while playing or training, up to 23% from 21% in 2021, with 9% of those players not reporting their concussion and continuing to play or train.
The level of non-reporting was up from 5% in 2021, and represented a return to the levels of non-reporting last seen in 2017.
Of the AFLW players surveyed, 17% said they suffered a concussion while playing or training, but only 2% did not report it.
The level of concern about the potential long-term effects of concussion is growing, the survey found, with 70% of AFL mens’ players and 69% of AFLW players worried about how they may be affected in the long run.
The number of applications for football-ending injury payments relating to concussion had also seen a “significant increase” over recent years, the ALFPA submission said, with concussion-related injuries accounting for 63% of successful applications for the payment in 2021. Prior to 2021, there had only been a total of four applications relating to concussion.
The AFL and the AFLPA are expected to appear at the Melbourne hearings of the senate inquiry next week.
