SACKED podcast: Greg Williams says he has the brain of an 80-year-old, and the AFL should ban contact training over summer

Greg Williams won two Brownlow medals and a flag across 250 games – but can hardly remember any of it. His playing career left him with the brain of an 80-year-old, and he says the AFL must act.

Dual Brownlow medallist Greg Williams says the AFL should consider a total ban on pre-season contact training as he deals with the scary reality that he almost certainly has degenerative brain disease CTE.

Williams told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast advanced brain scans had revealed damage from repeated knocks and concussions had resulted in the brain health of an 80-year-old.

“I believe I’m damaged, I really do,” the 61-year-old said of his belief he had CTE, which is only diagnosed by an examination of the brain post-mortem.

Recent advances in science with MEG scans are giving cutting-edge, high-level analysis of serious brain injuries, allowing concussion victims to assess the damage they have suffered.

Mark Harvey cleans up Greg Williams in 1996.

Danny Frawley, Shane Tuck, Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer and Murray Weideman were all found to have had CTE, with the Victorian coroner requiring the AFL to respond to his calls for slashing contact training after Tuck’s death.

Williams has worked hard on diet, exercise and with brain health activities to reduce the effects of those head knocks but cannot remember any details in depth from his 250 games including the 1995 Grand Final.

The Carlton football director says the league should consider a total ban on tackling across the summer and is concerned about the contest-heavy AFLW competition.

Asked if the AFL should reduce contact sessions to 10 across a pre-season, Williams told Sacked the league could eradicate all tackle drills.

“Maybe none. You can still teach tackle technique and stuff, but you don’t have to have the full ‘bash-up each other’ sessions,” he said.

“Even training is still an issue at the AFL level.

“There is no need to be belting each other up at training. It’s just ridiculous. In the NFL they don’t. They are not allowed to. In certain sessions they (are allowed contact) but we have a fair way to go.

“It’s the compounding (from repeated sub concussions) that is the problem.

Greg Williams copped repeated knocks across his career.

“It’s not just the concussion. And then you talk about ‘W’ (AFLW) and I get really upset about W. It’s not the umpires fault, it’s the AFL’s decision in regards to women. They have five and six tackles in a row, there is in the back, there is around the neck. Just be a bit tiggy touch wood and pay the free and let’s go.

“I just think (the impact of concussion) is very scary for the women.”

The AFL is moving closer to concrete guidelines around the levels of contact training across a pre-season but most clubs now conduct a period of match simulation in many or all post-summer sessions.

The league asked them in February to be more prescriptive about the levels of contact in training, but in the NFL only 14 sessions in any season are allowed to contain tackling.

The AFL said on Thursday that it was still collecting data from clubs and would report back shortly.

Williams had at least four official concussions but many more head knocks across a career at Geelong, Sydney and Carlton that saw him win two Brownlow Medals and the 1995 premiership.

“With CTE, I’ve been following that for a long time. I believe I’m damaged, I really do. I cope and I’m good. I do a lot of things. I do exercise and I’m a carnivore as well, so I really think that helps as well. Diet helps … I feel like I’m doing everything I possibly can,” he said.

“But I can’t remember anything about any game I played. Honestly, I can’t remember getting married. I just don’t think it’s normal … I know footage from the ‘95 grand final and stuff like that. I know I was there. But it’s just a bit frustrating when you don’t remember the main things that happened.

“I remember (former AFL CEO) Andrew Demetriou said (Williams) might have concussion but ‘he hasn’t forgotten how good he was’. I thought that was a good line. But concussion’s not funny.”

Williams has completed cutting-edge brain scans which have confirmed a worrying level of damage.

“There are some good scans that show damage. And it wasn’t a good scan. (They said) pretty much that I was an 80-year-old. 75 or 80, which is pretty damning.”

“I remember studying concussion years ago and someone said to the best neuroscientist in America, ‘Oh my son played gridiron, he’s 15 and he got knocked out on the weekend, how long should he have off?’ And the (reply was), ‘He shouldn’t play again’.

“That’s how serious it is.”

Originally published as SACKED podcast: Greg Williams says he has the brain of an 80-year-old, and the AFL should ban contact training over summer