AFL facing concussion Armageddon
THE AFL has long indulged a paranoia about the world game but Gillon McLachlan has genuine, unprecedented cause for alarm with Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin prosecuting John Barnes’ landmark concussion claim.
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THE AFL has long indulged a paranoia about the world game but Gillon McLachlan has genuine, unprecedented cause for alarm with Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin prosecuting John Barnes’ landmark concussion claim.
If a $1.3 billion, NFL-style settlement for post-career care doesn’t break the bank, a massive focus on brain injury caused by contact football codes looms as Armageddon for AFL participation.
Griffin, one of the nation’s sharpest commercial legal minds, is at the coalface supporting battered footballers losing theirs, from former Essendon ruckman Barnes to 109-game Melbourne high-flyer Shaun Smith.
AFL boss McLachlan will earn his $1.74 million annual salary after News Corp this week revealed Barnes would front a concussion damages action, masterminded by Griffin, against the league and clubs. The NFL this year finally ratified a monster pay-out to past players, predicting up to 6000 would suffer Alzheimer’s disease or dementia linked to on-field concussions.
There is no hidden agenda here from soccer heavyweight Griffin. Instead, the AFL is confronted by a time bomb decades in the making.
It has been reported a dozen players will join the proposed concussion action, expected to start early next year. The Advertiser understands that substantially under-represents the numbers led by Barnes.
Brain lesions, epilepsy, depression and insidious mental deterioration cited by former footballers serve as a warning to sons, daughters, fathers or mothers pursuing the game as an amateur or professional.
Brownlow Medallist Greg Williams four years ago revealed the torment of mood swings and memory loss consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease responsible for early-onset dementia. Brisbane great Jono Brown, haunted by 20 career concussions, notes the brain “eats itself from the inside out” when attacked by CTE.
Barnes, 48, laments “I’m not the same bloke I used to be” after three broken jaws and a half-dozen concussions, 17 years on from his 2000 flag with Essendon. There will be blokes from Beaumont to Bordertown with similar tales, pain and apprehensions.
Soccer boasts 674,094 out-of-school-hours participants nationally to Australian football’s 366,462. The plight of players who fear neurological impairments resulting from football will focus parents on the sport of choice for their children.
The AFL has spent around $120 million on a fledgling Giants franchise through a silent war on the world game for hearts and minds in Sydney’s west. The proposed federal court action by ailing players has the potential to rock the fabric of AFL, drain its broadcast rights windfall and ability to prop up Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast.
The 2016 AFL injury survey showed the number of games lost to concussion rose from 4.2 per club in 2015 to 5.6 in 2016. Adelaide’s Brent Reilly, North Melbourne’s Leigh Adams, Melbourne’s Sam Blease, Brisbane’s Matt Maguire and Justin Clarke are examples of concussion-related retirements in recent years. St Kilda’s No.1 draft pick Paddy McCartin, 21, has sustained six concussions since 2014, leading to fears over the consequences of another blow.
This writer won’t forget watching Adelaide vice-captain Rory Sloane mistake a club trainer for Bernie Vince after being concussed against Melbourne in Darwin last July.
Sloane was inspirational against Geelong six days later but another head blow could have had untold ramifications, now highlighted by Barnes.
Eradicating risk means quelling the gladiatorial nature of Australian football that has proven an unrivalled allure for over a century.
Griffin’s case sheds light on an inconvenient truth the football industry is duty-bound to face.
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