Groundbreaking insurance available to protect community and elite AFL players

Patrick Bines was knocked back for a payout despite needing close to 20 neck surgeries, but a life-changing breakthrough to help him and other footballers suffering has been found.

Guy Walker. Picture: Penny Stephens

A groundbreaking insurance product that can safeguard elite and community-based AFL players with up to $2 million in coverage is being investigated by West Coast after a successful claim from former player Patrick Bines.

Insurance expert Adriana Oreskov has in recent months brokered three successful insurance claims for AFL players seeking total permanent disability payouts in a watershed moment for the league.

Bines, former Big Bash and Melbourne AFL player Guy Walker and a third AFL player who has requested privacy have secured significant payouts, that in some cases have exceeded $500,000, from the AFL-AMP insurance fund.

Former West Coast rookie Bines was knocked back for a payout despite up to 20 neck surgeries that saw him needing eight opioid painkilling tablets a day.

Patrick Bines (L) has received a pay out after the help of Adriana Oreskov. Picture: Getty Images

Within 60 days of discovering his case Oreskov was able to have a $500,000 lump sum payment paid out for total permanent disability.

While Oreskov works on more claims for AFL players she has found a new and more cost-effective insurance product that has a more reachable definition for elite sportspeople.

Previously AFL players were unable to access Work Cover or income protection provisions that would safeguard them in the case of a catastrophic accident.

Oreskov, of OSE Insurance, spent Thursday and Friday in Perth advising West Coast as it considers how to more adequately protect its players.

The club has been forced to watch while Bines, premiership player Daniel Venables and club stalwart Brad Sheppard have retired in recent seasons because of concussion or neck related issues.

Daniel Venables had his career cut short with concussion problems.

Bines was eventually paid out using the standard insurance product offered by the AFL and Players Association to all players in the past decade, which has an extremely tight definition for TPD. .

But Oreskov believes the new product _ available for as little as $300 a month _ could be a game-changer across all elite and community sporting organisations.

“This product has a definition which is not as restrictive (for permanent total disability). It is a more comprehensive product and it’s designed for active sportspeople. Players can’t get Work Cover, they can’t get income protection, but they can insure against permanent injuries, death, cancers and terminal illnesses. The old product was very restrictive. Almost impossible to claim against. This product is different,” she told the Herald Sun.

“There are a lot of gaps in the insurance market but there is insurance that is available. I am guessing no one has looked at it.

“A lot of people blame the insurers for the policy contained inside superannuation. But with high risk categories _ AFL players, athletes, pilots, police officers, paramedics, FIFO workers it is very difficult to get standard cover given to you with no underwriting within insurance.

“So that is why there are a lot of restrictions but you can apply for better insurance and there is better insurance. No one has even looked at it until now. Even when I tell people they say it’s too good to be true. It is not. It is not expensive at all.”

Former Melbourne player Guy Walker and insurance specialist Adriana Oreskov. Picture: Supplied

Oreskov was introduced to the insurance field when a Year 12 tutor who was also an insurance specialist helped in a claim for her mother’s workplace accident.

Watching Fox Footy’s On The Couch last year as Bines’ situation was laid bare, she got in contact with him to offer her services.

Ex-Melbourne footballer Kade Kolodjashnij, who has battled with his own concussion history, then put her in touch with Walker.

Walker has just been able to claim a significant amount through his cricket insurance after a shoulder injury that led to suprascapular neuropathy, a tendon-related injury that caused total permanent disability.

Walker, Bines and the third AFL player can now use those payouts to fund rehabilitation as they seek to improve their quality of life.

Ex Victorian cricketer and Melbourne footballer Guy Walker. Picture: Supplied

“I was on my way out of the industry when I saw the Fox Footy story about Patrick having 20 surgeries (but a rejected claim). So I rewinded. Foxtel lets you rewind. I missed his name and had to write it down and then invited him out for a steak lunch. No one in Melbourne says no to a steak. 60 days was all it took,” Oreskov said.

“No one has looked at the claims side of it. No one has understood until now. Lawyers have dabbled in it, but they haven’t gone into the details, they haven’t challenged the insurer. They haven’t pushed back because you don’t have to agree with everything the insurers say.”

Some claimants have been subjected to the gaze of private investigators attempting to disprove his TPD, with Oreskov acting as expert, quasi-therapist and more.

Walker played cricket in the BBL for the Renegades. Picture: Supplied

“Making that phone call to people to say your claim has been approved gets me emotional every time.

“Patrick was over it. He said, “I am not doing this, I am done”. I said, “Well, I am going to follow your claim through with or without you. Everyone is always about to give up just before a breakthrough.

“When I call the player with a successful claim they are speechless. I say, “Are you there?”. They say, “I am just processing it”.

Originally published as Groundbreaking insurance available to protect community and elite AFL players