The AFLPA’s funding criteria for pre-AFL era players must be expanded to help those who played outside Victoria
IF you played one game of VFL prior to the AFL era you qualify for access to the AFLPA’s support. If you played 448 SANFL games, like Peter Carey, you don’t — and that’s plain wrong.
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THE AFL Players Association proudly tweeted this week that it had recently spent $500,000 on helping broken down old footballers access medical treatment for injuries sustained in their playing days.
The tweet didn’t use those exact words but “broken down and old” is a description that fits most of us who played the game.
Very few escape without an issue of permanent injury — be it physical or mental.
That money comes from the AFL players’ injury and hardship fund.
The AFL Players website describes it as “one of the most significant benefits for past players in the history of the AFL Players’ Association and positions AFL football as a code that prioritises the health of its athletes.”
It’s a commendable commitment from the current AFL players — a $4 million a year commitment. The money is raised from the players’ share of industry revenue.
To be eligible for assistance a player needs to have played only one game of AFL/VFL football. And there’s the most galling aspect of the AFLPA’s commitment to its past players.
Old VFL players from the pre-AFL era are eligible for assistance.
Those who played in the SANFL or the WAFL before the AFL came into existence are not. It’s a damning indictment that the AFL and the AFLPA refuse to address.
To put it into perspective, a little-known footballer by the name of Steve Newman, who played one game for the defunct Fitzroy against Essendon in 1988 and failed to get a kick, a handball or take a mark is eligible.
A team-mate, Tony Spassopolous, did a little better in his one game for Fitzroy in 1985, with one kick and two handballs. He is also eligible for assistance.
Norwood champion, Michael Aish, who played 307 glorious games for Norwood, is not. Neither is Peter Carey, whose 448 games for Glenelg is an Australian record.
Ironically Port Adelaide legend, Roger Delaney’s one game for Fitzroy in 1990 qualifies him for special assistance if he needs it. His 208 games for Port Adelaide do not.
It’s not that the AFLPA don’t recognise players from the SANFL or the WAFL.
AFLPA chief executives including Paul Marsh, and previously, Matt Finnis have been sympathetic when the issue as been raised.
Unfortunately that sympathy has not morphed into any acceptable outcome or formal recognition. Victorians always raise the argument that it was the VFL that became the AFL — as if it was as simple as a name change.
However, the AFL would not exist without the significant contribution of money, players and resources from the WAFL and the SANFL. All pre-AFL SANFL and WAFL players should be recognised and accepted by the AFLPA.
Norwood captain, Jace Bode, is the newly appointed regional manager of the AFL Players Association.
He sees both sides of this ongoing debate but his main priority is to raise awareness for ex-AFL/VFL players to know what they can access.
Recently retired and delisted players have access to a range of services, namely health and wellbeing, social connections, continued education and financial prosperity through the AFL players and AFL industry superannuation fund.
Some have more dire needs and can be assisted by a special hardship fund that has distributed $1.375 million to 273 past players since 2007.
However Bode is particularly keen that as the stigma surrounding mental health is slowly diminishing, former players are made aware of the range of wellbeing and life performance resources available to them.
Footballers never know when the end might come. It can be dramatic and traumatic and too many have suffered in silence and alone. They need not.
We have no such football resources for SANFL players, although former South player and Glenelg coach, Brenton Honor has a goal of changing that. Moved and inspired by the predicament and circumstances of his former team-mate, Magarey Medallist Mark Naley, Honor has lobbied the SANFL.
His vision is “to provide a range of support options & to improve wellness for former SANFL League Footballers who are experiencing life challenges. This support may provide counselling services or financial support on a case-by-case basis.”
His initial approach has been well received by the SANFL but will require much support and finance from within the SANFL and from government and corporate sectors. What it needs most is formal recognition from the AFL and AFLPA.
There are many in the community that feel that footballers are given so much and earn so much money that they should be able to stand on their own two feet. It’s a simplistic attitude. The pressure of performing and living your life in the public eye brings far more expectation and the stress invariably takes its toll.
The AFL, perhaps begrudgingly, has recognised this and the increasingly powerful AFLPA ensures that players are cared for far better than at any stage in football’s history.
But those players who built this powerful organization that is now the AFL were not only from the VFL. Now, more than ever, the AFL has to recognise that without the SANFL and the WAFL, the AFL would not exist. Ex-players from all three of those competitions deserve the same rights, services and privileges.
Originally published as The AFLPA’s funding criteria for pre-AFL era players must be expanded to help those who played outside Victoria