Concussion: Daniel Venables wants the AFL make CT scans mandatory for all future draftees
After being the first player forced into premature retirement by a medical panel, Daniel Venables is urging the AFL to take a crucial step to protect future draftees.
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Daniel Venables, the first AFL player forced into premature retirement by a medical panel over significant brain trauma, has urged the league to mandate CT scans and baseline testing for all future draftees.
The West Coast premiership player announced his retirement recently after an independent AFL panel recommended he never play contact sport again following a sickening collision in 2019 which caused seven brain bleeds.
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Venables, 22, has revealed the ongoing symptoms he has endured across the past 27 months, asking the AFL and industry participants to lead the way on concussion – unquestionably the most alarming issue in the game.
In a detailed and exclusive interview, Venables, along with his father Peter, detailed:
# How his life changed “in a split second” after colliding with Melbourne’s Tim Smith before his head hit the ground with full force in a Round 9, 2019 match in Perth
# How a routine brain scan at Sunshine Hospital following a concussion in an under 18s game proves his brain trauma relates directly to his AFL career
# The myriad of symptoms including headaches, migraines, pressure on the brain and insomnia which often saw him sit under hot showers for long periods in an effort to find relief
Venables, who played 21 games for the Eagles including in the 2018 Grand Final win, is in the unique position of having had a clean brain scan before entering the AFL system after suffering a concussion when playing for the Western Jets.
He wants future AFL draftees to have the same recourse, saying the AFL needed a baseline for all new players coming into the system.
“No one (from the draft) gets scanned at the moment, but I think they should all be scanned,” Venables said. “It is all about baseline testing.”
“They should do it properly, sit there down for two-and-a-half hours and find out as much as they can before they enter the system.”
Associate Professor Alan Pearce from La Trobe University said he agreed “110 per cent” with Venables’ call to introduce baseline testing.
“The only thing I would suggest is that CT scans or MRI scans actually don’t pick up any changes with concussion,” he said.
“So what we need to do is have other ways of testing the brain … Something a little bit more functional and more specific to concussions.”
Dr Pearce also called for independent testing outside of the AFL to ensure players received objective care.
Venables, the No. 13 pick in the 2016 draft, who was the youngest Eagles premiership player in 2018, wants the AFL to have a zero tolerance when it comes to headhigh contact.
He said he could not be more grateful for what the Eagles had done for him throughout his journey, particularly since his incident.
But he stressed that participants at every level of the game needed to start working together on the issue of head knocks and concussion.
His father, Peter, said the family had faith in West Coast’s pledge to do the right thing for his son.
“You have to believe in good will,” Peter Venables said. “Daniel has had a great conversation with West Coast and it was positive.”
“The thing about Daniel’s situation is that it is unique because a): back in his under-18 year he got concussed and went to Sunshine hospital for a scan; and b): it happened on national TV; and c): the AFL medical board unanimously conferred and told him he had to retire.
“That has never happened before.
“The question now is what happens next (in terms of his future). We don’t know, because no one knows. But Daniel is trying to stay positive and so are we.”
500 hours of Tuck footage that could save AFL lives
Multiple head knocks suffered by Richmond star Shane Tuck during his AFL playing career are being analysed by lawyers and neurologists as part of a coronial investigation into his death.
A legal team acting on behalf of Tuck’s widow, Katherine, has been poring over more than 500 hours of vision from every game Tuck played for the Tigers.
Greg Griffin, counsel for Ms Tuck, has compiled a team of 14 lawyers, law graduates and final-year law students to work on the case.
The team is also collating numerous published medical papers from 1970 onwards dealing with the state of knowledge as to the effects of concussion on players and return-to-play protocols for professional athletes.
Tuck took his own life in July last year and was later diagnosed with Stage IV CTE, the devastating degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head knocks. He was 38.
“All of this work is being done in preparation for the Victorian coroner’s inquest into the death of Mr Tuck,” Griffin said.
Tuck’s diagnosis came months after the Herald Sun revealed St Kilda great Danny Frawley had been suffering from Stage II CTE when his four-wheel drive struck a tree in Millbrook, near Ballan, in September 2019. CTE can only be diagnosed after death.
A mandatory 12-day rest after a player suffers a concussion has been introduced by the AFL this season.
But Griffin said the shift to 12 days was “more about public relations than science”.
“The players still only miss one game, which is the intention of the rule change,” he said.
Tuck played 173-games for the Tigers between 2004 and 2013.
The investigation into the death of the former Richmond hardman took a contentious twist in March when the AFL succeeded in its push for Victorian Coroner Simon McGregor to recuse himself from the probe, arguing he had a conflict of interest.
His brother works as a psychologist with the AFL Players’ Association.
Coroner McGregor had previously indicated his investigation would be all-encompassing, noting he had already received a report showing a correlation between CTE and participation in contact-based tackling sports.
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