They are men who lived on the field, playing the game which helped to define them. But for some former AFL players, those moments of pain and glory have been washed away with such severe memory loss that they can no longer recall their most celebrated achievements, nor other significant details from their lives.
Many are suffering in silence; some say they are too scared of the potential repercussions. Afraid of losing their jobs, or swallowing their pride, or of having to fight to get the help they need from a governing body they allege is doing “everything it can to deny, deny, deny” that football has a concussion problem.
Others say they have already lost their families – ripped apart by their broken brains and all the hurt that can entail.
Some are simply too sick to speak for themselves, in full-time care with degenerative diseases which will likely – based on the evidence to date – later be linked to a chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) diagnosis.
Guardian Australia has spoken to six former players and their families as part of an investigation into the AFL’s response to concerns surrounding concussion in the sport.
The majority are reluctant to publicly discuss the long-term effects of their repeated brain injuries sustained on the pitch. Almost all, though, say they have received little to no support from the sport’s governing body or, to a lesser extent, the AFL Player’s Association (AFPLA) , both of whom have a duty of care to protect their athletes.
One says he has spent months chasing the AFL for brain scan results from studies they were involved in and follow-up care, while another family member has faced repeated “deflection” about funding. One former player says he has received “next to none” from either.
“Obviously when you finish and it’s a career-ending injury there is a payment involved, but it is so is unbelievably subpar, especially in terms of the rest of your life,” he says. “And especially with concussions, depending on how bad it is, you can’t really work at all so it’s really hard to get an actual income. The money they offer should be substantial enough to keep you afloat for at least 10 years.
“It seems like they’ve applied the same sort of blanket rule – that if someone finishes their career with a knee or something, it’s still shit, obviously, but it’s a knee – you’d be OK. But a brain injury, that couldn’t be more different – it could affect you in 30 years.”
That player says he had a brain scan a few years ago on the recommendation of Dr Paul McCrory, the neurologist who last month resigned as chair of the global Concussion in Sport Group amid allegations of plagiarism.
As revealed by the Guardian, McCrory is now the subject of an independent review launched by the AFL, for whom he was said to have led research, advised on concussion policies and treated and diagnosed athletes sustaining concussions and other serious head injuries.
Australia’s medical regulator, Ahpra, is also investigating whether he treated patients in compliance with an enforceable undertaking he gave the body in 2018 to not perform certain neurodiagnostic procedures. That undertaking is still in place, and privacy laws prevent the regulator from disclosing why the undertaking was given.
McCrory has not responded to requests for comment from the Guardian in relation to these matters.
“It’s mind-boggling,” the player says. “For such a big enterprise … if you want to know how to handle it, just fucking ask the people who are going through it. It’s that simple.
“I don’t know why [the AFL] are so afraid. I guess it’s money, but it’s not like they’ve got a shortage of it. You’d think it would just be a logical adult conversation to have with people, but I guess when money’s involved all logic goes out the window.
“With the PA [the AFL Players Association] there is support, but it’s not like they’re going out of their way to offer it,” they say. “At the end of the day, they’re a union, and they apparently have the players’ best interests at heart. What frustrates me so much is just the lack of action.
“It’s clearly a serious issue that’s been going on for a long time and there’s so much evidence around how it affects people, not just immediately but also in the long term.”
A big piece of that long-term puzzle is CTE, the progressive and fatal brain disease which can only be diagnosed by autopsy. But signs of its presence in life include a range of symptoms, such as behavioural changes, mental health issues, impulse control problems, memory loss and other cognitive impairment along with degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and epilepsy.
Some past players who spoke in confidence to Guardian Australia suffer from such severe memory loss they can no longer operate normally in life.
Some struggle with short-term memory, managing to stay employed by carrying around a notepad at work so they can quietly write down directions from managers or colleagues. Others endure debilitating headaches, unsettling aggression, depression and anxiety.
Affected players and their families find it a baffling enough mystery on its own. Compounding the distress is what they describe as the laborious, and ultimately unhelpful, quasi-infrastructure that the game’s administrators insist is designed to support them.
Part of the enigma is the confusing web of research projects, such as the AFL’s major study announced in 2014, from which the Guardian revealed no findings or reports have ever been published.
One ex-player says he had scans through the AFL, most recently at the start of 2021. After the latter, he chased the governing body repeatedly – and unsuccessfully – for his results.
“I did all the tests the AFL wanted me to do,” he says. “And then when it came to me finding out information from the actual specialist, it was like six months later and they still hadn’t got me an appointment with a specialist. I’ve still never found out what happened with those last test results, so the AFL’s got all the data on them. I’ve got no idea.
“I was pretty pissed off with that, to be honest.”
A medical consultant for the AFL told him that it was difficult to obtain a timely appointment with specialists in his city of residence. The consultant assured him the program’s primary objectives were to provide players with information and a long-term management plan. He says he was booked an appointment almost 12 months after his scan, which he could not attend due to another unavoidable commitment, but that the AFL had since become more responsive.
“In 2014 they said that I was like an anomaly compared to the other players that they tested in that I had scars on my brain. And I wasn’t a heavy drinker or drug user. But I wouldn’t be able to say the same [now] – my life’s deteriorated a lot since then.
“That article on Andrew Macpherson rocked me pretty big. I was just, like, it’s very similar symptoms to what I’ve got. I’ve done about four weeks’ work all this year. The most I’ve worked in a week is probably 15 hours.”
Shaun Smith, the former Melbourne and North Melbourne player who in 2020 was awarded a landmark $1.4m insurance payout recognising “total and permanent disablement” caused by the brain injuries he sustained during his 11-year career, was not involved in the AFL’s 2014 study.
“I wasn’t part of that, I wasn’t asked,” Smith says. “I didn’t even know it was on, to be honest. But with [John] Barnes they came back and said, ‘there’s nothing wrong with you’, so it would’ve been a waste of time anyway.
“My take on it is they’re basically trying to do everything they can to deny, deny, deny that there’s actually an issue. The PA actually helped me out a little bit with some counselling and financially as well, which I appreciate greatly.”
Another former player, who has experienced major memory loss, says it is understandable that many – including himself – feel the need to remain anonymous.
“If you’re out there saying how you’ve got real issues with concussion and stuff like that, it’s difficult to get a job,” he says. “It’s not in their best interests to be going out there saying they’ve been knocked out 10 times and they’re not feeling well all the time.”
This player wants to remain unnamed to preserve the last sliver of his identity not defined by his brain injuries.
“I see blokes all the time who aren’t well, who’ve got real issues with their wives,” he says. “Even the wives talk about their issues. Like it’s just, it’s pretty sad. It’s hard for the wives as well, putting up with the moods, the aggression, all those things. They’re the ones bearing the brunt of it, really.”
This player did not take part in any AFL studies. For him, it was “very much” a trust issue. “The problem is if they start agreeing to doing everything for everyone, it’s not good for them legally, which is a big problem,” he says. “It’s just frustrating.”
He is one of a number of former players to have had their brains tested through a 2013 Deakin University study which found memory, reflexes and muscle coordination could all be impaired by concussive and sub-concussive impacts.
Another player, who also took part in the independent Deakin study, says he did so because there was, at that stage, no option to do so through the AFL.
“Obviously it showed a bit of damage, but that was 10 years ago,” he says. “I’ve recently just got done some through Melbourne University, so [I’m] just waiting [on those results].”
The wife of a former player, whose condition has deteriorated so rapidly he is in respite care in his 60s, had a different experience with the AFLPA.
Over the past couple of years she has repeatedly contacted the AFLPA’s alumni program in the hope it could uphold its pledge to provide “all past players [with] access to free and confidential services, including psychological and concussion support, doctors’ network and the AFL Players’ Injury and Hardship Fund”.
“I asked, ‘You have an injury and hardship fund as part of the alumni, how do you access that?’” she says. “And they said, ‘Well, that’s only for people who are absolutely broke, and most of them have mental health issues, they’ve had to be institutionalised or they have drug addictions’. That was the response.”
She said she was offered access to a counselling service for herself.
The AFLPA, in a statement to Guardian Australia, said its $4m a year Players’ Injury and Hardship Fund – paid for by player funds allocated as part of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement with the AFL – allows past players to apply to be reimbursed for “medical costs associated with joint surgery, dental and members facing financial hardship, along with career-ending injury support”.
“Players who retire due to career ending injuries, including concussion, are eligible to apply to the fund, which has assisted more than 600 past players with more than $9m for issues stemming from their playing careers since it was established in 2017,” it said. “We continue to advocate strongly for more research and support for players with concussion issues to be provided by the industry.”
When asked, the AFLPA did not specify a formal criteria for who can access the fund. It says it “takes concussion very seriously” but does not, at this stage, have plans for a concussion-specific fund to assist – financially or otherwise – players and their families navigating the longer-term ramifications of repeated traumatic brain injuries sustained in their place of work.
The AFLPA and AFL are negotiating a new CBA, with the current one due to expire at the end of October.
The AFL said, via a spokesperson, that it had committed to “reviewing the arrangements for providing financial and/or other assistance to former elite players suffering financial and other difficulties later in life that may be attributable to concussion or head trauma sustained during their professional footballing careers”.
“That work is ongoing,” the spokesperson said.
“Separately, the AFL’s Past Player Program provides coordinated neuropsychological assessment, imaging/scans and clinician assessment to past elite players suffering neurological and/or cognitive deficits in retirement. The AFL is currently undertaking a review of the Past Player Program with consideration of further clinical care and support being offered to past players in need.”
The wife of the player in care has also been writing to the AFL, including the chief executive, Gillon McLachlan.
“There’s so much deflection when you ask questions about what’s happening with funding,” she says. “There’s been a lot of media about some funding that’s there for the players who’ve been affected. And so much deflection about studies.
“It blows my mind that they can’t, that there’s just nothing. They seem to spend so much money on research and surveys and things like that, and it doesn’t seem to get anywhere.”
She says her husband had been due to take part in AFL-run brain scans, which the family welcomed, but had to postpone when he was suddenly admitted to hospital.
He is one of numerous past players who intend to join a planned concussion class action against the AFL.
“It’s you against the AFL and the PA,” says another player who has signed up. “Because everyone’s got vested interests and they’re all protecting themselves. You get that initial support. Great. Everyone does when they finish playing. But then you’re in the dark for the rest of it.”
Know more? Contact emma.kemp@theguardian.com
