Danny Frawley’s widow Anita Frawley pleads with AFL to ‘get on with it’ after coroner’s recommendation

Anita Frawley says the AFL must honour a coroner’s recommendation on concussion research made after her husband Danny’s death.

Danny Frawley’s widow is calling on the AFL to “just get on with” honouring a recommendation of the coroner to “actively encourage” players to donate their brains to the Australian Sports Brain Bank in footy’s concussions fight.

Handing down her findings into the St Kilda legend’s death, Victorian coroner ­Paresa Spanos recommended the initiative in February 2021 in order to the shed more light on the impact of repeated head knocks, saying it “could save lives”.

Frawley had been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy – a crippling brain disease – after he died when his car hit a tree in September 2019.

A year later and a few months before the inquest findings, AFL chief Gillon ­McLachlan announced: “I have spoken to Anita (Frawley’s wife) and said we will work with the brain bank and other researchers to better understand this disease and its impact.”

Anita Frawley wants the AFL to ‘just get on with’ a coroner’s recommendation.

But a frustrated Mrs Frawley has this week told the Herald Sun the league has not lived up to its promise, saying: “They (the AFL) should just get on with it.

“My girls and I are ­extremely passionate about the AFL and AFLPA to act on the recommendations.

“We 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 ASBB are ready to go.”

After committing to working with the brain bank in 2020, the AFL in May 2021 proposed an alternative.

“At this point in time, the AFL does not agree to the ­active encouragement of the donation of brains to the Australian Sports Brain Bank,” the AFL said in correspondence with the coroner.

Responding to Mrs Frawley’s concerns this week, AFL spokesman Brian Walsh said its brain donor program had been “reasonably delayed” ­because a “longitudinal study”, which was integral to it, was not “finalised”.

But the AFL’s probe into its disgraced concussion adviser Paul McCrory has been critical of the league’s concussion ­research and specifically found the “longitudinal research” had no budget.

“What is still lacking is ­effective support of longitudinal research. We understand that since mid-2021 the AFL has been working on a proposed longitudinal project.

However, in some respects it seems limited progress has been made to date,” the investigation led by Melbourne barrister Bernard Quinn KC concluded.

Danny Frawley with his family. Picture: Mark Stewart

The US’s National Institutes of Health – the world’s largest biomedical research agency – has rewritten its guidance on CTE, acknowledging a causal link between repeated head injuries and the brain ­disorder.

Given the development, Mrs Frawley further questioned the AFL’s focus, saying: “What’s the point of the longitudinal study when we know CTE is caused by head injury?”

She applauded McLachlan for his “courage” in commissioning the McCrory report.

“Gill’s been wonderful to our family,” she said.

But “the brain donation form should be on every player’s contract”, she said.

The ASBB was the “logical and only choice” for a brain donation program as a world leader in CTE research, she said.

Anita Frawley says the brain donation form should be on every AFL player’s contract. Picture: Alex Coppel

Frawley was diagnosed with CTE in September 2020 in a post-mortem carried out by ASBB Associate Professor ­Michael Buckland.

“I was the one who got the phone call from Michael Buckland asking for Danny’s brain and he was the one who rang me back with the results. He is an incredible person who helped me and my family through this,” Mrs Frawley said.

“The ASBB is the only brain bank that specialises in CTE. Buckland is the perfect professional to deal with families in such an emotionally devastating time after someone ­suicides.” 

Since 2018, the ASBB has received 700 brain pledges and retrieved 42 brains for study.

Of the first 21, more than half had CTE, including AFL great Polly Farmer, Richmond star Shane Tuck and several former rugby league stars.

Last week it was announced that rugby league great Paul Green, who took his life aged 49, had advanced CTE. Six of the 12 with CTE died by suicide, not including Green.

“We don’t know how common CTE is yet, but the evidence to date indicates it is not rare,” Professor Buckland said.

Frawley suffered at least 20 concussions and was hospitalised six times. 

In his later years, he experienced mood swings and personality change, all symptoms associated with CTE.

Mrs Frawley is in no doubt a “ lot of that was the CTE”.

Information about ASBB and donor registration can be found at brainbank.org.au