Ricky Nixon opens up on his grief for Danny Frawley and why he fears for a generation of players
Ricky Nixon had many discussions with Danny Frawley about his health battles in the months leading up to his death. It’s those conversations that left Nixon initially unable to come to grips with not saving his mate.
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Ricky Nixon has finally come to grips with not saving mate and former client Danny Frawley but wishes he could have done more to help his downward spiral.
Nixon is adamant Frawley’s mental health battles and deterioration were related to on-field concussions.
The former Saints player was beside Frawley when he was knocked out for four minutes in 1988.
The pioneering player agent spent time in hospital with his own mental health relapse last year after three friends, including Frawley, took their own lives in a week.
He told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast he witnessed Frawley’s erratic behaviour first-hand but after advice from ex-footballer and broadcaster Rex Hunt, he has been able to stop blaming himself.
“I will never forget the day Danny was managing the Coaches Association in my offices at Etihad Stadium,” he said.
“We were sitting in a meeting and without going into detail something happened and I went, ‘Wow’. I got a phone call three hours late from a family member who said, ‘Rick, what is going on, he’s off his head?’
“And I said, ‘I know. I have seen it over five years’.
“On Fox Footy they saw it as well. Some of the things he did were funny. At St Kilda he was development coach and allegedly 10 times they asked him to leave the ground. He wasn’t right.”
Frawley would eventually lose his life after hitting a tree outside his family property near Ballarat last September.
Frawley and Nixon had discussed their battles in the months leading up to his death.
“If I said I saw it coming I didn’t. You would be silly to say that. But how can I say this without breaking confidentiality?
“He met with me just before he passed away and he was in a lot of trouble mentally. It did my head in. I should have done more. How does this happen?
“Rex Hunt rang me and I will never forget this. He said, ‘You know what, Chicken, if you stop your mate from crashing into the tree, they would have crashed into one the next day. So stop worrying about Danny, you could have done something in the lead up but you can’t save them in that mindset.”
The hit that saw Frawley knocked out in 1988 saw Dermott Brereton suspended for six weeks but remarkably the Saints full back went back onto the ground in the same game.
“Danny Frawley got knocked out for four minutes and I was standing next to him when Dermott did it. I don’t want to criticise Dermott because that’s what his game was and if he did it today he would be delisted,” Nixon said.
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“He has been very good about it. He says I wish I hadn’t done it. But he got knocked out for four minutes, went off the ground and came back on.
“If you get knocked out for more than a minute when you are 50 they say your brain deteriorates.”
Nixon has detailed recordings of the concussion history of his AFL clients and is prepared to use them to help them in their battle for compensation.
Nixon said he would never attempt to destroy the AFL with a massive payout that threatened the careers of current players, but he feared for a generation of ex-players with degenerative symptoms.
Nixon has kept notes on the concussions and erratic nature of his client’s behaviour, saying high-profile concussion victim John Barnes once rode his motorbike straight into his office.
He believed good friend and client Frawley might have had degenerative brain disease CTE.
The Herald Sun can confirm Frawley’s brain has been donated to Australia’s brain bank.
A major weakness of the proposed class action against the AFL has been a lack of historical club medical data on concussions, but Nixon said he kept all the data and notes from decades in the business.
“Concussion is a big issue. I never saw it coming but this is going to explode,” Nixon said.
“People might think I am exaggerating, but I am getting all these phone calls from players.
“There are some who might think (a payout) might pay my gambling debt, but there are a lot who are actually struggling. We don’t want ex-players sitting on their couch all day drinking beer on centrelink (payments).
“Every club has got rid of their medical records. I am not having a go at them, I know why they have done it. But I have got the records. I know when they got knocked out and when their wife said to me, ‘He’s gone strange, Ricky’.
“Johnny Barnes is a good example. He has said he was concussed something like 14 times. I have got records to say he has been knocked out eight times.
“I have got records that say John came in to see me today and he rode a motorbike into my office. So note taken, ‘This is not normal’. And when the judge says does anyone have any evidence I know who has.”
Asked if that information could be used to help players, Nixon replied: “Absolutely. And I didn’t keep records for the reason we are talking about now, but I will tell you what, I am loving that I kept the records now. My job is to collate the information.
“If (AFL chief executive) Gill McLachlan rang me this afternoon and said what are you up to, I would say, ‘I will go into bat for the players mate, but I ain’t going to destroy the game’.
“Without a game we have got a problem. People would say you have an agenda and want to screw the AFL and it’s all about money.
“But I see it as my management career is going from management of players to managing their health. It’s not about destroying the AFL. (AFL legal counsel) Andrew Dillon has spoken to me and he was very pro the health of players and I am sure Gill is as well.
“ (Ex-AFL stars) Des Tuddenham and Peter Bedford are good mates of mine. I didn’t play with them, I didn’t manage them. But the things they talk to me about are about 15 of their best mates being on the sofa at home, drinking beers and not in a good way, and their head is not great.”
MORE SACKED: RICKY NIXON
Originally published as Ricky Nixon opens up on his grief for Danny Frawley and why he fears for a generation of players
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