Call for AFL to allocate more money to help players forced out of the game through injury amid Patrick Bines’ heartbreaking story

Patrick Bines hoped telling his harrowing story would shed light on footy’s failed insurance and compensation schemes. It has worked, with the AFL called on to do better.

Former St Kilda president Andrew Plympton says football has an obligation to cater for injured players such as West Coast’s Patrick Bines and can afford to do so if the league prioritises player care.

The AFL confirmed to the Herald Sun on Tuesday night it was looking at ways to help athletes like Bines with financial and other assistance as part of a wider review into concussion management and other catastrophic injuries.

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Plympton is a St Kilda life member and former board member of the Australian sports commission who has spent his career in insurance broking and was an advisory board member to world insurance giant AON.

He has spent years advising the AFL and the competition’s players union on expanded care for players as the league confronts the heartbreaking story of Bines, knocked back for total and permanent disability through superannuation firm AMP.

Patrick Bines has helped shed light on the ugly side of footy.

AON provided a submission to the AFL in 2016 stating if a player suffered a catastrophic injury including paraplegia, quadriplegia or permanent brain injury, “the community expectation would be that the AFL provides significant lifetime compensation to the player regardless of whether the AFL is adequately insured for such an eventuality”.

If the league is unable to access quality insurance for players in Bines’ situation or those with catastrophic brain injuries it will need to consider allocating money from its own compensation pool.

Plympton told the Herald Sun the AFL would need to lobby the Australian government to expand workcover to include football, with jockeys the only sportspeople who can access work cover.

But Plympton says the AFL has a choice to make about how it cares for players such as Bines regardless of the cost.

Bines revealed to the Herald Sun on Monday that he requires four times the recommended daily dose of painkilling opioid tablets for a debilitating neck injury and has had to spend as many as 22 hours a day lying flat on his bed.

His plight was so dire that at one point he consulted Victoria’s voluntary euthanasia society on his options.

Former St Kilda president Andrew Plympton says the AFL has an obligation to take care of players who are forced out of the game through injury.

“AFL footballers are primarily regarded as contractors and don’t have workers’ compensation available,” Plympton said.

“Over the years I have tried to help the AFLPA and AFL look at alternative structures to contract and it has been going on for years and at AON we didn’t get a resolution but these matters aren’t going away.

“The test these days would be: ‘Is this how the community expects the competition to look after young players injured in sport?’ And the answer is no.

“To see (Bines) story and know what he has done with wanting to end his life, as the president of St Kilda, I know what happened with Danny Frawley and what he went through. It is heart-wrenching stuff.

“The AFL has to allocate more funds for this. We can’t have 18 year olds going through what this kid is going through. The AFL just have to rank it as an order of priority.

“It is achievable. It just means other things have to be set aside like stadium redevelopment have to be set aside for these payments.”

Bines has been put through 20 neck surgeries. Picture: Supplied

An x-ray of Bines’ neck. Picture: Supplied

Bines is preparing to be part of a class action as he contests an AMP superannuation decision to knock him back for total and permanent disability despite 20 neck surgeries and interventions that have left him unable to work or study.

The league has contacted Bines in recent months to offer help and said on Tuesday: “Patrick’s journey post football has been one faced with immense challenges, we understand and empathise with the situation he is in.

“Since retiring Patrick received a payment from the AFL Players’ Injury & Hardship Fund that is administered by the AFL Players’ Association and to which the AFL makes annual contributions.

“The AFL is also currently looking at further assistance, both financial and other, for past players that need longer term assistance as part of a wider review.”

Concussion campaigner Peter Jess on Tuesday called on the AFL to conduct a “total review of the insurance and compensation requirements of the AFL” in light of Bines’ losing a bid for total and permanent disability.

“The system of compensation and its delivery fail at every step of the process as evidenced by Patrick Bines and other players who have prematurely retired from catastrophic injuries”.

Peter Jess has called on the AFL to act.

Australian Jockeys Union chief executive Matt Hyland said the AFL would have to consider if it could access similar coverage to horse racing.

“It is Racing Victoria which covers the premium and they pay a premium,” Hyland said.

“A jockey can be on workcover for 136 weeks and jockeys will also have disability benefits they are entitled to through work cover.

“We are one of the sports who are looked after well if we get into these situations and sadly the injuries can be career-ending and life threatening.

“The insurance policies the jockeys can take out can be quite expensive but the real question is who considers themselves responsible for covering the athlete.

“Most sportspeople never consider the worst-case ramifications and the football industry is faced with that as it considers issues like concussion.”

Bines in action in the WAFL in 2019. Picture: Getty Images

AFL players prepare to take fight to ‘junk insurance’

Former West Coast rookie Patrick Bines is preparing to be part of a class action against superannuation provider AMP after being denied a payout for a neck injury so bad he has required almost 20 surgeries and medical interventions.

Bines requires four times the daily dose of painkilling opioid tablets each day and has been required to spend as many as 22 hours a day laying flat on his bed.

His plight grew so dire he consulted with Victoria’s voluntary euthanasia society on his options and at one stage grew so desperate to ease the pain he took morphine at a Richmond injecting room.

Last week after a two-year ordeal his claim under the AFL-AFLPA superannuation scheme was knocked back because he had not lost a limb and could still walk under the policy’s tight definition of permanent disability.

Bines told the Herald Sun he was stunned – after a single season earning $75,000 with West Coast in 2019 – to be told there was no work cover arrangement in the AFL.

He was part of an AMP superannuation policy that his lawyers believe was “junk insurance” which did not cater for AFL players dealing with life-changing injuries.

Morris Blackburn is appealing his claim to the superannuation trustee and Bines could eventually be part of the class action given what the law firm claims is insurance utterly unfit for AFL players.

Bines’ life was changed forever in a routine footy act. Picture: NCA NewsWire

The AFLPA has since changed to a superannuation policy with a more forgiving definition of total permanent disability but AFL players from 2009 to 2020 are now realising their retrospective claims for that period are doomed to fail.

“To get a payout you would need to lose a limb to classify and I don’t know an injury in the AFL where you would lose a limb or have something amputated. It doesn’t make sense,” Bines told the Herald Sun this week.

“It’s capped at $500,000 anyway.

“There is no worker’s comp, there is no income protection.

“For people to have their lives so restricted, I just don’t want this to happen to another 18-year-old, a rookie who has their whole life ahead of them and has been chasing it their whole life.

“Then to see how hard our game is. One hit, and that’s your life gone.”

Concussion campaigner Peter Jess, who has spent years attempting to lobby the AFL for work cover or more suitable insurance, said Bines was trapped in a legal nightmare.

“It is zombie insurance. There are at least 1500 past players who thought they were covered by this policy and clearly now it has been demonstrated to be a zombie policy,” Jess said.

“Completely worthless if there is a catastrophic event where you can’t work again.”

The AFL’s view is that obtaining workers compensation for all players is an industry-wide challenge with players currently funding the career-ending payouts from their own pockets with an annual contribution.

An AFLPA spokesman said: “Players who leave the game with injuries that impact their ability to work post football, or total or permanent disability deserve to be provided with adequate support. Currently there are gaps in our industry.

“In lieu of WorkCover or support from the league the AFLPA, through the current players’ share of industry revenue, has established an Injury and Hardship Fund and a collective insurance policy for Death or Total and Permanent Disability.

“We continue to advocate for the industry to fill the gaps for players who leave the game in need of support.