Veteran agent Peter Jess launches scathing attack on AFL over concussion
Shaun Smith’s historic payout could set a precedent for thousands of future claims across football and player agent Peter Jess believes it has exposed ongoing failings of the AFL’s leadership.
AFL News
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The man behind Shaun Smith’s historic $1.4 million concussion damages payout says the AFL is behaving like “Big Tobacco” in the footy head knocks battle.
Player agent Peter Jess said Smith’s monster insurance claim and the late Danny Frawley’s recent CTE diagnosis had exposed ongoing failings of the league’s leadership on concussions.
Jess is pushing for stricter return to play protocols and more sophisticated match-day testing.
A mandatory one-month lay-off should also be enforced in all local and junior leagues, Prof Pearce said.
In a scathing letter sent to AFL commission chairman Richard Goyder this month, Jess accused footy’s most senior figure of abandoning the game’s frontline participants.
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Watch every match of every round Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
He said his attempts to directly raise concerns about concussion with Goyder had gone unanswered.
“I no longer presume it is because you are too busy,” Jess wrote.
“But it is evident by your lack of response you don’t care about the welfare of current and past players.
“Your lack of leadership as chairman of the AFL is astounding.
“To allow the continuation of flawed protocols is negligent and a clear breach of your duty of care to the current AFL players.”
Asked about his “Big Tobacco” reference, Jess said: “The playbook is deny, deny, deny — even though the science and medicine is compelling.
“We now know that CTE is intergenerational in Australian rules footballers. The major concern is that we have not learned from the past and adjusted the return to play protocols to give the brain time to heal properly.”
Smith’s insurance company, MLC, paid the $1.4 million on Thursday after recognising he had suffered a “total and permanent disablement” as a result of repeated head knocks.
The landmark decision could set a precedent for thousands of future claims across football and other contact sports.
Our players being damaged by the game they love
– Peter Jess, veteran player agent
I’ve been raising concerns with the AFL and AFLPA for nine years about the
long-term neurological impairments I am witnessing among past VFL/AFL players who I’ve acted for as an agent or accountant.
These men are not statistics to me or their families. They are real, living flesh and blood.
In addition to my concerns about the impact of neurological damage, I have been advocating for a universal insurance scheme for the AFL players, which mirrors workers’ compensation, to address the long-term issues that arise from their neurological and orthopaedic impairments.
Most of these ex-players are not insured for this outcome, which places enormous financial and emotional burdens on the families of ex-players.
We are the only first-world country that does not have a workers’ compensation scheme for its professional and semi-professional sportspeople.
This is a denial of their basic human right for workplace insurance.
I began acting for players in the late 1970s.
These were fine, fit, healthy young men at the peak of their sporting lives.
Now, in many cases, their lives have been destroyed due to the damage caused by playing the game they loved, without any recourse or accountability from the league.
The incontrovertible medical and scientific fact is repetitive head trauma caused by collisions creates long-term neurological impairments.
But it seems to be that rather than accept AFL football has caused long-term damage, the league would rather take an adversarial approach.
The AFL must engage, instead of fighting these past champions who created the bedrock of the game to grow to what it is today.
MORE AFL NEWS
Every clubs B&F: Who will win your club’s best-and-fairest award in 2020?
North Melbourne puts Ben Brown up for trade as mass list changes continue
Originally published as Veteran agent Peter Jess launches scathing attack on AFL over concussion