Coroner finds Danny Frawley took own life after battling depression
A coroner investigating the death of AFL legend Danny Frawley says football players should be encouraged to donate their brains to aid research into CTE.
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A coroner investigating the death of AFL legend Danny “Spud” Frawley says football players should be encouraged to donate their brains to the Australian Sports Brain Bank after their death to aid research into a crippling neurological disorder linked to head knocks.
Coroner Paresa Spanos delivered her findings on Tuesday and revealed Frawley was battling depression, acting erratically and feared his star power was waning in the lead-up to a crash which claimed his life.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neurological disorder linked to repeated head knocks — which the Herald Sun revealed Frawley had been suffering for years — was declared a potential contributor to his depression.
The 56-year-old — a St Kilda Hall of Fame player, former coach and Fox Footy commentator — had stopped taking medication and seeing a psychiatrist in the months before his four-wheel drive struck a tree near Ballarat in September 2019.
He’d resumed appointments and medication just five weeks earlier but was still experiencing mood swings.
Despite after death being diagnosed with CTE — a degenerative disease associated with repeated head blows — it could not be ascertained to what degree, if any, it had contributed to Frawley’s mental health difficulties and/or death.
“Mr Frawley was experiencing a number of personal and professional stressors, and a significant deterioration in his mental state, with an exacerbation of the anxiety and depression he had been suffering for some five years,’’ Ms Spanos said.
“At its highest, CTE is a potential contributor to the depression that Mr Frawley suffered for some years preceding his death.”
Ms Spanos recommended the AFL and AFL Players’ Association encourage players to register as donors with the Australian Sports Brain Bank to aid research. The Coroners Court finding also showed Frawley had been seeing a psychiatrist since 2014 having suffered a “depressive breakdown” after a tumultuous stint as Richmond coach and leading the AFL Coaches Association during the Essendon drugs scandal.
He suffered severe depression, insomnia and engaged in “poor decision making and conduct that caused conflict in his marriage”.
“To his family, Mr Frawley would lie in bed all week and be extremely needy, but he would be able to put on a brave ‘public face’,’’ the finding noted.
Frawley’s media presence waned after January 2019 — his wife saying it appeared to “bruise his ego”. By April he was increasingly erratic and began to eat and drink excessively, gaining 25kg. He stopped seeing friends and was “consumed by his own needs with little apparent regard for his family.”
Frawley’s personality changed — avoiding his family’s Christmas in July celebrations to be with a country AFL team he was coaching.
He began seeing his psychiatrist again in August and last saw them on September 6 after a trip to Hong Kong with his wife, Anita.
Anita felt it took her husband at least a year to recover after he commenced treatment but said “he was never the same”.
“To his family, Mr Frawley would lie in bed all week and be extremely needy, but he would be able to put on a brave ‘public face’ and give the appearance of normal functioning,’’ the report states.
The report states that Frawley’s media presence waned considerably after January 2019, his wife saying it appeared to “bruise his ego”.
“From about April 2019, she observed that he became increasingly erratic and began to eat and drink in excess. Mr Frawley stopped turning up to planned bike rides with his friends and was consumed by his own needs with little apparent regard for his family,’’ the report states.
Frawley had a birthday dinner with friends and family the night before the crash and appeared happy.
The next day about 9am he phoned to move a 10am appointment with his psychiatrist to 4.30pm.
Mum Shirley twice tried to phone — Frawley phoning back to say he would come over the next day for dinner.
Frawley’s crashed Holden Colorado was found alongside Old Melbourne Rd at Millbrook about 1.40pm — police estimating the ute was travelling at least 132km/h. No alcohol or illicit drugs were in his system but there were traces of medications.
Coroner Paresa Spanos found Frawley intentionally took his own life.
— For more information about pledges for brain donations, go to brainbank.org.au
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