Head Noise podcast: Mental health is legend’s goal

NRL great James Graham calls for a ‘brain/body and mind check up’ for retired athletes across all codes.

James Graham playing for the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2015. Picture: Getty Images

Many professional footballers emerge from football clubs with few life skills because clubs run their lives, even seizing their passports in the days before international trips, says James Graham.

That’s why it’s up to professional sporting codes to look after athletes’ brain health in retirement, says the NRL great and host of The Australian’s new podcast investigation, Head Noise.

Graham is in talks with the NRL about setting up a lifetime brain, body and mind check-up for all professional players.

As the former St George and Bulldogs player explains in an ­interview for The Australian’s Head Noise, while he may have had the foresight to explore his own brain health, other players don’t.

“I’m not saying I’m better or anything like that, but some people would just be happy to go along to get along,” Graham said.

“We see in the sporting environment where lads can’t even be trusted to take their own passport to the airport when you play in New Zealand.

“How are they supposed to be trusted to ensure their future – and health – is looked after if … you can’t give a kid (a passport) and say ‘we’re playing and we’re flying to New Zealand on Wednesday, in Auckland, bring your passport’. How’d you expect them to look after their brain health?”

Graham hopes for his initiative of a “brain/body and mind check-up” – for all sporting codes – which could take place on the “old boys” days often held at clubs. “Old boys’’ days are usually reserved for drinking alcohol and eating pies,” he says.

Concussion Legacy Foundation founder Chris Nowinski – whose Australian branch was launched in Melbourne on Monday night – said Graham’s “brain/body and mind check-up” was a great idea.

“I support a brain/body mind check … the NFL Players Association is doing that and it is very helpful. It especially helps stop people from suffering in silence.”

Dr Nowinski hopes the launch of his concussion foundation will “accelerate culture change”, advance research in the space as well as “supporting patients and their families”.

“I have been coming to Australia for a decade now and I am pleased with some of the progression, especially the establishment of the Australian Sports Brain Bank, but I believe change needs to happen faster.

“People are still out there suffering and Paul Green’s suicide is a reminder of the urgency of this issue,” he said.

As concern around concussion ramps up, sporting codes are being encouraged to act.

Peter Jess, who has advocated on behalf of more than a hundred AFL players, is pushing for the ­establishment of a billion-dollar fund for retired players suffering brain issues.

Two-time Western Bulldogs president and leading lawyer Peter Gordon has been engaged by the AFL to help in designing a multimillion-dollar concussion compensation and support fund.

“It will be set up for former players suffering from measurable neurological impairments both structural and functional, which by definition is chronic traumatic encephalopathy,” Mr Jess said.

He has proposed the fund provide no less than $25m a year for 80 years. “We first put the proposition in 2021, that a concussion fund should be set up and the AFL have engaged with Peter Gordon … His final report will be submitted … in the next month,” Mr Jess said.