Mark of the Century hero Shaun Smith reveals crippling toll of repeated concussion during AFL career
Former AFL high flyer Shaun Smith says the dazzling heights of his football career weren’t worth the crippling concussion toll which has followed, delivering a warning for current players.
AFL
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Standing on the shoulders of teammate Garry Lyon, flying forward Shaun Smith felt for a fleeting moment as if he was on top of the world.
It was at a packed Gabba in 1995, three years before the 109-game goal kicker retired, battered and bruised after an AFL career for the Roos and then the Demons interrupted by dozens of head knocks and concussions.
Today, Smith is convinced that none of the highs were worth the pain.
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“It’s been fantastic playing footy, but I guess now you would say, ‘No, it probably wasn’t worth it’,” he says.
“It kills me to say that.”
Smith, whose leap for the Demons against the Brisbane Lions 24 years ago has been declared the Mark of the Century, is taking the extraordinary step of releasing his medical files as a warning to others about the long-term consequences of head knocks, which remain a serious issue for the game.
His psychiatrist has outlined the extent of his brain damage as part of an application for a disability pension.
The gruesome analysis describes numerous lesions on the 50-year-old’s brain.
“Shaun presents with a long history of multiple and severe concussions, dating back to when he was approximately 15 years old, whilst playing AFL,” the psychiatrist’s verdict reads.
“His acquired brain injury has presented with features of depression, anxiety, mood instability, impaired attention, limited concentration and poor short-term memory.
“Shaun has often struggled with pervasive suicidal ideation, feelings of hopelessness, social withdrawal, insomnia, lethargy and a sense of apprehension about what his future will look like; all of this … variously complicated by periods of secondary alcohol abuse.
“A recent MRI scan of Shaun’s brain revealed evidence of deep white matter ischaemic change, which is consistent with aspects of his clinical presentation.”
Smith, whose son Joel plays for Melbourne, says his doctors were stunned at the level of damage.
He estimates he was “knocked out cold” 12 to 14 times during his career and suffered dozens of sub-concussive hits but was able to walk off the ground.
While stricter concussion rules have been enforced since Smith’s playing days, he says the AFL’s return-to-play protocols remain “horrible”.
“You can’t tell me you should get knocked out one week, or heavily concussed, and play the next week. That’s ludicrous. I’m not a doctor, but I’ve lived it and this is where I am now,” he says.
Geelong great Graham 'Polly' Farmer has become the first AFL player to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy after scans on his brain tissue.
On youngsters such as Paddy McCartin, a No.1 draft pick whose career has also been derailed by concussion, Smith says it is not worth it.
“Paddy is only a young bloke. It’s horrible and you would have to have some rigorous testing to even consider playing, but I think the body is telling you something: ‘Don’t play’,” Smith says.
He recognises the immense pull of the game.
“I was the same as a young kid, you always want to play and play and play. But it’s not worth it in the long run. It will send you crazy and literally mess with your head,” he says.
“I’m doing this to make people aware that concussion is a real thing; it’s not just a made-up thing to say, ‘Poor me, poor me’.
“It’s just a message to the AFL or any football league or footy team, that concussions, and especially the sub-concussive ones — where you get a knock and you don’t feel quite right, but you don’t get knocked out — will catch up with you in the end.”
Smith was the second player after Bombers premiership ruckman John Barnes to join a proposed Federal Court concussion damages action against the AFL and football clubs, unveiled two years ago.
Lead lawyer, Greg Griffin, working with a major litigation funder, says the case has been delayed by a lack of medical records and co-operation from several AFL clubs.
“I’m somewhat curious about why so many clubs have seen fit to destroy the medical records of their past players. There is a disgraceful lack of documentation,” he says.
Alarming statistics released by the league in June last year revealed 74 players suffered concussions in AFL matches in 2018.
Several, including McCartin and Bulldogs premiership hero Liam Picken, have left the game due to complications caused by head knocks.
McCartin, who has played just 35 matches in five seasons, opened up on the extent of his symptoms in an interview in May, saying: “I am just a shell of the person I was, really.”
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