Peter Jess says he has players with evidence to sue their club over concussion management

CONCUSSION campaigner Peter Jess has warned the AFL he has players with ample evidence to sue their clubs over concussion management.

CONCUSSION campaigner Peter Jess has warned the AFL he has players with ample evidence to sue their clubs over concussion management.

But as the league prepares for its latest concussion symposium next month, Jess has urged them to get real on genuine research into concussion protocols.

The NRL was this weekend rocked by the law suit of former Newcastle Knights winger James McManus, whose career ended after a series of hits.

He has launched action against his own club rather than the NRL, with AFL players furious about the league’s inadequate compensation for retired concussed players.

At a meeting last week Jess warned the AFL’s legal boss Andrew Dillon and chief medical officer Peter Harcourt about the potential for legal action.

His website concussionmatters.com has sought expressions of interest from past players into a potential class action.

Callan Ward was concussed during last year’s preliminary final. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Yet Jess believes instead of law suits the league should instantly fund independent research into medical tools that diagnose the extent of concussions.

He has repeatedly been rebuffed a $120,000 research grant into blood tests that would diagnose sub-clinical concussions after matches and training.

It would also help return-to-play protocols of players with concussion symptoms.

The league will in late March hold another concussion symposium where its medical experts discuss medical advances.

The league and AFLPA continue to work on a new compensation scheme after concussed retirees Matt Maguire and Sam Blease were denied career-ending payouts.

The Herald Sun revealed last month the league was undertaking a trial with Monash University to measure the force of hits endured by players in the JLT series.

Players are wearing sensors behind their ears to measure that force, with the trial also extending to the AFLW league.

Jess says rather than testing what is already known — contact sports cause concussion — the league should work on the science of examining how to lessen its damage.

AFL and AFLW players are wearing sensors for a concussion study into the force of hits players experience and the toll they take. Picture: Michael Klein

“This could open the floodgates. It could be just a start,’’ Jess said of concussion law suits across Australia.

“We could launch an action now for an individual against a club.

“But it doesn’t serve a purpose if we don’t engage with the AFL. I want them to actually lead this to make sure we have proper medical monitoring.

“We need to measure if players have medical impairments and if they do they should be compensated.

“The money should go to the research, not the lawyers.

“If we can get into a position where we can diagnose someone who has had sub-clinical concussions, we can find the intervention that mitigates the most severe problems.”

The league’s rules mandate players with concussions must not return to play until cleared of all symptoms.

But sub-clinical concussions are the repeated knocks of less force some researches believe are just as dangerous.