AFL vows to learn from Danny Frawley’s CTE diagnosis
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan says the league will work with Danny Frawley’s family and the brain bank to better understand CTE, but the league is already treating head knocks very differently.
AFL
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AFL boss Gillon McLachlan says the game’s concussion protocols have “changed considerably” since the days St Kilda legend Danny Frawley played.
McLachlan said the league had been notified of Frawley’s CTE diagnosis “several months ago”.
“Danny’s death last year had a profound impact on our industry. Everyone who knew Danny loved Danny” McLachlan said.
“I have spoken to (Frawley’s wife) Anita and said we will work with the brain bank and other researchers to better understand this disease and its impact.”
But McLachlan said the AFL had made a number of changes, “particularly over the past 20 years, to provide greater education and awareness and also greater on-field protection to players” surrounding head knocks.
“We have strengthened match-day protocols for the identification and management of concussion, we continue to change the laws of the game to discourage high contact and also moved earlier this season to change the tribunal rules to more strictly sanction tackles that endanger the head.
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“The ARC (match-day video review centre) which we introduced in the last year has also provided another opportunity to identify potential concussive incidents through the use of world-leading video technology.
“In our discussions Anita has been really clear that she wants the learnings from Danny’s death to continue to provide a benefit to sport and we will continue to work with Anita and the family and researchers to learn as much as we can and to continue to make whatever changes are necessary to keep the people who play our game safe”.
FRAWLEY’S CHANGES CAN NOW BE UNDERSTOOD
Danny Frawley was the knockabout spud farmer from Bungaree — a fun-loving footballer, father, coach and media star.
But as the years rolled by, those closest to him noticed the subtle changes that only now can be fully understood.
“As his wife for over 30 years, I strongly suspected there was more going on with Danny than straightforward depression,” Anita Frawley said of her late husband’s fight with mental health.
Revelations the St Kilda champ was suffering from Stage II CTE — chronic traumatic encephalopathy — at the time of his death last September are a wake-up call for the game he loved and that made us love him.
The cruel nature of CTE is even if Frawley or his friends and family suspected he was suffering from the devastating disease, no one could know for sure. CTE can only be diagnosed after death.
The crippling neurological disorder is linked to repeated head knocks and Frawley suffered his fair share of those during his 240-game career for his beloved Saints between 1984-95.
The AFL has taken giant strides in the fight against concussion since the bad old days when players were knocked out cold and sent back onto the field just minutes after waking up.
Just 10 years ago, Hawthorn’s Jordan Lewis was knocked unconscious in a sickening high-speed collision with Western Bulldog Jarrod Harbrow at the Docklands before rejoining the action in the second half.
It wouldn’t happen today, but debate still rages over how many days or weeks of rest a player should be given after suffering a significant head knock.
The AFL has been hit by a spate of retirements linked to concussions in recent years.
Liam Picken, Matt Maguire, Sam Blease, Jack Frost, Justin Clarke, Patrick McCartin, Leigh Adams, Sam Shaw and Koby Stevens have all told their own terrifying stories of life changing symptoms.
McCartin, the game’s No.1 draft pick in 2014, opened up on the extent of his issues in a disturbing interview last year.
“I am just a shell of the person I was, really. I am just completely different,” McCartin said. “It is very concerning. I just can’t do basic things, really.
“Footy aside, I have lost my identity as a person, which is hard.”
A year on, he is contemplating a comeback.
Ex-Melbourne high-flyer Shaun Smith, 51, was knocked out cold a dozen times across his 109-game career and recently was declared to be “permanently incapacitated”.
He requires lifelong treatment and daily medication.
The most recent AFL statistics revealed 74 players suffered concussions in AFL matches in 2018 — up from 63 in 2017, affecting an average of 4.11 players at every club.
But concussions are not just an issue for elite sport, with the junior and local footy leagues also grappling with how to manage head injuries.
The launch of the Australian Sports Brain Bank, led by associate professor Michael Buckland, is a game changer in the search for answers about concussion.
It found Frawley was suffering from advanced damage to his brain - a revelation that will help safeguard future generations of footballers.
Danny’s parting gift.
Originally published as AFL vows to learn from Danny Frawley’s CTE diagnosis