Retired players Sam Blease and Matt Maguire finally win concussion compensation

RETIRED players Sam Blease and Matt Maguire have finally won a protracted compensation battle to win payouts for career-ending concussions.

Sam Blease, along with Matt Maguire, has finally won compensation for career-ending concussions. Picture: Colleen Petch

RETIRED players Sam Blease and Matt Maguire have finally won a protracted compensation battle to win payouts for career-ending concussions.

Geelong’s Blease and Brisbane’s Maguire both retired during 2015 through repeat concussions but were initially denied payouts by the AFL.

While Brisbane’s Justin Clarke was able to win a payout of nearly $700,000 for a single catastrophic concussion, they suffered a series of hits in their careers.

Their claims progressed through the AFL’s grievance tribunal and were eventually resolved to their satisfaction late last year.

Both the AFL and Players’ Association admitted the criteria was unfair given players must prove a single career-ending injury in the last year of a contract.

Maguire’s final concussion in a NEAFL game in April 2015 was a brutal hit, worse than previous concussions but still he could not prove it ended his career.

Matt Maguire suffered several head knocks during his career. Picture: Peter Wallis

Blease retired at 24 after two serious concussions in 2015, which under the AFL’s compensation rules mean he would be eligible to 200 per cent of his base salary at Geelong.

McGuire was 30, which under the sliding scale means he was eligible for 50 per cent of his base salary.

Under that system, Dane Swan’s foot injury saw him paid out $400,000, which saw him retire given he would only have been paid that sum if he played on this year.

The Herald Sun understands AFL players have won key provisions over injury management in the new collective bargaining agreement.

A new lifetime health program to be voted on by players will see costs for players covered for all dental and joint surgery for life.

A new modernised injury payment model will also be struck that will see more realistic criteria for injury payouts.

Some of the criteria is still to be agreed on by the AFL and PA but broad agreement has been struck.

Sam Blease retired after two serious concussions in 2015. Picture: David Crosling

The CBA is being put to players at AFL clubs and is likely to be ticked off by the end of the month.

Former AFL football boss Mark Evans said last year the current system was not adequate for the complicated circumstances surrounding concussion.

“The criteria for both schemes doesn’t seem to ­adequately cater for some of the possible injuries around head knocks,’’ Evans said.

St Kilda’s Sean Dempster is the latest player to retire after a series of concussions across his career.

Like Blease, he did not have one concussion that ended his career but could be eligible for a payout after Blease and Maguire’s breakthrough.