‘Struggling for a long time’: Former Pie, Crow, Eagle Chad Rintoul urges AFL to do more for concussed former players

Chad Rintoul picked up numerous concussions across his career spanning three clubs. He’s been unable to work for a year but, as he tells JON RALPH, has “got zilch back” despite repeated calls to AFL House.

Former Collingwood footballer Chad Rintoul has urged the AFL to reach out to its past players desperately waiting for financial help through a new concussion fund, saying too many felt like they were “criminals” as they put their lives on hold.

Rintoul’s career finished in 2002 as he battled relentless migraines after at least eight concussions across a career with Adelaide, West Coast and the Pies.

Rintoul says he has repeatedly made contact with AFL officials including Andrew Dillon in recent months to discuss his plight but has received no answer from the league.

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Now living in West Australia, he has been unable to work as an electrician for the past year given the headaches and mental fatigue that come with daily work.

In July last year he put in a detailed dossier of medical reports and his financial picture after the AFL’s legal boss Stephen Meade asked affected parties to put in submissions for urgent financial relief.

Former Bulldogs president Peter Gordon is working on a new concussion fund which would help former players with financial hardship.

Chad Rintoul during his playing days at Collingwood in 2001.

But after the timing of that fund was initially being linked to the AFL’s CBA negotiations – announced last September – Rintoul and a cohort of past players continue to wait without clarity on whether they receive any support.

“I got an email through (concussion campaigner) Peter Jess from Stephen Meade regarding a fund last July. I sent all the information they were after,” Rintoul told this masthead on Monday.

“My financial position, my medical position, notes from neurologists. I submitted that and it was quite a lot of information and I forwarded it to Stephen Meade and Andrew Dillon.

“I have followed up with texts, emails and phone calls to those guys late last year and early this year and got zilch back. Put it this way I haven’t heard a whisper myself from the AFL.

“I haven’t been working for the last year or so, I am just dealing with head issues, and seeing doctors and neurologists.

“I keep hearing (the concussion fund) is there and that we will help our players but it’s like a mirage. It just feels like we are criminals in a way.

Matthew Connell and Chad Rintoul celebrating the Crows’ premiership in 1997.

“I don’t understand it. The AFL is such a big organisation and such a popular organisation and I feel they could care for their past players a bit more. I would love some communication. How are you? How are you feeling? How can we help?

It’s not all an illusion, it’s real It is real people’s lives here. It is real and you can see people are retiring from it, it’s real.”

The AFL said on Monday it continued to make progress on a concussion fund which would help past players with their financial concerns.

Rintoul, 49, was part of a group of ex-players considered in the most need of financial assistance and asked to put forward submissions to the AFL as far back as 2021.

They including West Coast’s Dan Venables, Bulldog Nigel Kellett and Kade Kolodjashnij, Richmond’s Ty Zantuck, former Essendon and Footscray player Alan Stoneham and St Kilda’s Rod Owen.

Only Kellett, who told his harrowing story to Mark Robinson this year, was given some monthly financial help as he seeks a bigger lump sum.

Ex-Footscray footballer Nigel Kellett at his Newport home. Picture: Michael Klein

Players hoping to access money from that scheme to help pay medical bills have been told negotiations are bogged down in details including which players will be eligible.

The fear of many is that there will be too many exemptions or caveats placed upon financial relief so many former players will be excluded from the fund.

The league has contributed $54 million over five years to a new hardship fund but it is not certain players who retired through concussion-based issues will secure money from that fund or a separate pool of cash.

Rintoul estimates he suffered at least eight concussions across his career including three significant blows in his final three seasons.

He was hit in a collision by Paul Salmon in 2020 then after a collision with West Coast’s Phil Matera in round 2, 2002 he somehow played the next week against Carlton.

Footballer Chad Rintoul bleeding from face while playing in the SANFL.

He was concussed again and spent the rest of the year sidelined with crushing migraines as the Pies progressed all the way to the Grand Final.

He has been able to work at times in the past 20 years despite his symptoms but last year found the symptoms too debilitating.

“I have stopped working. I was struggling for a long time. I got help from neurologists and doctors. If I get too fired up I struggle with headaches so I just take it real easy. It all comes back to those concussions I got, according to my neuros. I haven’t earned money for over a year, we are just doing the best we can. So some help and some communication would be good.

“Eddie McGuire says Stephen Meade and Peter Gordon are doing some good work behind the scenes and hopefully we can see that soon. I want to be respectful, (but) I would love some communication.”

Originally published as ‘Struggling for a long time’: Former Pie, Crow, Eagle Chad Rintoul urges AFL to do more for concussed former players