Zurich Insurance Group introduces blanket concussion exclusion for new AFL players in wake of giant payouts

Seven-figure wins for former AFL players forced to retire due to concussion have prompted a major insurance firm to ditch head trauma cover, prompting fears across the league.

Sydney's Paddy McCartin after a head knock during the AFL Round 4 match between the Sydney Swans and Port Adelaide Power at the SCG on April 8, 2023. Photo by Phil Hillyard (Image Supplied for Editorial Use only – **NO ON SALES** – ©Phil Hillyard )

Global insurance provider Zurich has shut the gate on concussion claims for new AFL players after a series of million-dollar payouts.

The Herald Sun can reveal three former AFL players – St Kilda and Sydney defender Paddy McCartin, Western Bulldogs and Brisbane Lions fullback Marcus Adams and Collingwood and Adelaide playmaker Paul Seedsman – have recently received seven-figure payouts for head trauma.

All three had retired due to the debilitating effects of on-field concussions that they said had impacted their ability to work and caused devastating symptoms such as memory loss, moodiness, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise and sleeplessness.

And following big payouts to the trio, and several other smaller claims, Zurich last month introduced a blanket concussion exclusion from professional sporting claims for new clients.

Paddy McCartin recently retired due to concussion. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Paul Seedsman’s career ended in 2023. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Senior player manager Tom Petroro, from TGI/TLA, said it was a blow for the AFL’s playing cohort considering the significant physical risks facing players on-field.

“To have this taken away is disappointing in the sense that what is there to protect our players?” Petroro said on RSN radio on Thursday.

“Obviously the AFL has some mechanisms around salary cap and what it issued earlier this year.

“But it does make it really difficult to get coverage for players.”

Petroro, who handles some of the biggest names in the game including recent concussion retiree Angus Brayshaw, said agents were scouring the market for a potential replacement insurance option to protect players’ futures.

They cost players up to $5000 a year in premiums.

The change has triggered fears footballers will be left financially exposed, with some of the league’s top agents at an AFL Players’ Association conference on Wednesday accusing the insurance provider of walking out on the game’s stars amid the concussion crisis.

A senior Zurich manager confirmed that new AFL clients could not claim for concussion under the so-called Active policy in email on July 11.

“The business has made a decision to exclude concussion on all professional sportspeople,” the email said.

“No benefit will be payable for any claim where the condition or event giving rise to the claim is directly or indirectly related to concussion or traumatic injury, including complications.

“This includes chronic traumatic encephalopathy or (chronic) post-concussion syndrome or any other future diagnosis linked to head trauma.”

Player agents are now understood to be weighing up alternative cover options amid growing concerns about the impacts of brain injuries.

Four AFL players have been forced into medical retirement this year due to concussions, including Collingwood’s Nathan Murphy and Josh Carmichael, Brayshaw and Western Bulldogs’ Aiden O’Driscoll.

Last week, Murphy said he still suffered “constant headaches” and had days where he did “not want to get out of bed”, 10 months after his Grand Final head-knock.

Players do not have a group trauma insurance policy that covers concussions, meaning they have to take out their own individual policies in conjunction with their agents.

Nathan Murphy played his final AFL game in the 2023 grand final. (Photo by Russell Freeman/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

AFL concussion victims without trauma cover only have access to money from their existing player contracts, the AFLPA’s $25m injury and hardship fund and the players’ superannuation fund which is a death and total permanent disability policy.

That hardship money will increase to a total of $54m by 2027, following talks between the association and the AFL.

But specialist insurance adviser Adriana Oreskov, who has handled some of the most prominent AFL players’ concussion claims, including those of Kade Kolodjashnij and Guy Walker from Melbourne, and West Coast’s Patrick Bines, said the current group of players were at major risk.

“Some of these players who have suffered brain injuries on the field are unable to work again,” Oreskov said.

“The impacts can be devastating and we have seen a number of players retire recently, but the reality is there can be lifelong consequences. So it doesn’t just end their careers, it can really restrict their livelihoods and their ability to look after and provide for their families.

“More and more players are realising they need to protect themselves and I would really encourage them to assess their options in this space.”

The revelations come little over a week after the Herald Sun revealed that the AFL’s landmark $25 million brain injury research program had stalled amid marathon negotiations on how it would work.

Announced in late 2022, the Brain Health Initiative is the biggest financial commitment the league has made to examining the impact of head knocks – an issue which has also sparked a class action involving more than 100 former players against the AFL.

Angus Brayshaw was forced into retirement this year. Pic: Michael Klein

But while the league has accepted that studying the brains of deceased former players is critical for the initiative to be meaningful, it has declined to respond to questions about the progress of negotiations with brain bank facilities.

The Herald Sun on July 30 revealed that meetings about partnering with two brain banks – the Australian Sports Brain Bank and the Sydney Brain Bank – have failed to lead to any agreements.

Back in September 2020, former AFL chief Gillon McLachlan pledged to do “whatever” was necessary to ensure players’ safety after a post-mortem diagnosis revealed tragic St Kilda great Danny Frawley – who suffered about 20 concussions while playing – had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma.

In October 2022, with no brain bank deal on the horizon, Anita Frawley said: “They (the AFL) should just get on with it,” she told Herald Sun. “My girls and I … see this as potentially one of Danny’s greatest legacies as he would want every AFL, AFLW and any football player to have the right to ­donate their brain to Australian Sports Brain Bank.”

The AFL has also faced embarrassing revelations one of its experts, Dr Paul McCrory, had plagiarised and altered scientificquotes – with the league conceding in 2022 that there had been a “number of inadequacies” with its longstanding research.

Originally published as Zurich Insurance Group introduces blanket concussion exclusion for new AFL players in wake of giant payouts