‘They need to act now’: Anita Frawley’s impassioned plea to sport at concussion hearing

Danny Frawley’s widow Anita has urged sporting bodies to stop players who have exhibited repeated and severe concussion symptoms from playing again in a passionate presentation to the senate inquiry into concussion and head trauma in contact sports.

And she said she could not understand what priority could be higher for the AFL than introducing a no-fault compensation scheme to support past players and their families suffering from the impact of head trauma.

Anita Frawley speaks during a public hearing into the inquiry into concussion and repeated head trauma in contact sports, in Melbourne,Credit: AAP

Frawley outlined the effect CTE had on her husband, former St Kilda captain, Richmond coach and media personality Danny, and their family when she spoke in Melbourne on Wednesday. She said her motivation for speaking out was to stop families in the future from enduring what they had when he took his life in 2019.

Frawley told the inquiry her husband burst into tears after receiving a call from AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan to see where he was as the All-Australian selection committee were waiting for him to arrive at a meeting. Frawley was on the farm and immediately broke down when he hung up.

“I just forgot the meeting. I don’t know what is happening to my brain. There is something seriously wrong with me,” Frawley recalled her husband saying.

“Soon after this incident I remember standing in our kitchen with fear in my eyes and just thinking ‘I don’t know this man and who he is. This is not the man I married’.”

Danny Frawley died by suicide not long after and his brain was found to have CTE stage 2 when the Australian Sports Brain Bank examined it posthumously.

Anita Frawley said she was not arguing against the AFL and emphasised they had reached out to her often, and she was only too happy to keep the connection, but that would not stop her expressing her views.

“I’m not against them. I want them to do something, and they’re not doing enough. I think they want to help, but how?” Frawley said.

“We must act to stop players that have exhibited repeated and severe concussion symptoms from returning to play, ever.”

She said the support of professor Michael Buckland, who examined the former Saint and media personality’s brain, and the subsequent answers the results provided to her questions about what had happened to her husband, assisted her and her three daughters in their grief.

The AFL’s legal executive Stephen Meade said the league took the issues surrounding concussion seriously.Credit: Jason South

She said the Frawley family is motivated to find ways to assist people and their families if they are showing signs of CTE.

“I can’t change the past, but I can have a hand in changing the future,” Frawley said.

Despite the AFL committing $2.5 million per annum to funding a longitudinal research study, Frawley said the community could not wait for those results as it was already evident there was an association between contact sports and CTE.

“The sporting bodies need to act now – now that we know we need to act. To know and not to do is to not really know at all.” Frawley said.

She said sporting bodies must act to stop athletes from taking the field after being concussed, argued independent doctors’ clearance should be essential before players return to the field, and called for an independent review of return to play protocols.

Frawley argued for a comprehensive health and support scheme for those who potentially have CTE and “are suffering the consequences”.

“I understand the AFL has commissioned a no-fault compensation support scheme, but it is not yet a reality. What could be a higher priority for the competition than looking after the individuals on whose shoulders the success of the game now stands,” Frawley said.

The report into the scheme is with the AFL, which is yet to share it with the AFLPA. The scheme is to be thrashed out in the pay negotiations between players and the AFL that are underway.

Danny Frawley - chaired off after his last game in 1995 - was diagnosed with stage 2 CTE after he died.Credit: Getty Images

Frawley wants the AFL to appoint the Australian Sports Brain Bank as the national body for brain retrieval and also suggested an opt-in brain donation form to be included in players’ contracts.

Renee Tuck, the sister of former Richmond player Shane Tuck, backed calls to support the Australian Sports Brain Bank, as she outlined the traumatic effect her brother’s brain trauma had on him and his family.

“His brain was rotting on him,” Tuck said.

Shane Tuck, who played 173 games for Richmond and also spent a short time boxing post his playing career, took his own life midway through 2020. His sister said governments and sporting bodies needed to act.

“It is not going anywhere and it will be not going anywhere anytime soon,” Tuck said. “If anything comes from Shane’s death, hopefully it will be to help.”

Frawley spoke in the afternoon after the enquiry heard testimony from the AFL, AFL Players Association, Cricket Australia, the lawyers launching class actions around concussion and concussion researchers.

The AFL conceded they were still learning about the effects of concussion and welcomed the inquiry while the Players’ Association CEO Paul Marsh suggested the 12-day minimum protocol introduced in 2022 was behind the percentage increase in the number of players not reporting concussion symptoms.

“There is definitely a link between the minimum sit out period and players not reporting concussions,” Marsh said.

Greg Griffin, a lawyer who has launched a class action against the AFL seeking compensation for damages allegedly caused by concussion, said a public authority such as Sports Integrity Australia should be responsible for ensuring concussion policies and protocols are adhered to by sporting bodies.

Frawley said two of her daughters have upcoming weddings but the knowledge their father would not walk them down the aisle was hard to bear.

“Our lives will forever be touched by sadness, even in our happiest times,” she said. “We must act now to reduce the incidences of this happening to other families in the future. To me, this is not about blame or justice seeking. It is simpler than that – it is just about care. Caring for the human beings who have given their lives to the sport they loved.”

Geelong-born Joey Didulica suffered concussions from early childhood, but somehow made his way in soccer to become goalkeeper for Croatia, earning a place in squads for the 2004 Euros and the 2006 World Cup.

But the concussions never stopped and grew worse, he told the inquiry. One day while playing in the Netherlands, he came to speaking German and did not recognise his wife and daughter.

He sought help from Dr Paul McCrory, who said his main problem was his neck. “He said get your neck right and you should be fine to play on,” Didiluca said. “So I’m not a doctor, but I knew I wasn’t good. I knew my brain wasn’t good. It wasn’t working the way it should”.

With the help of the Geelong Cats, he strengthened his neck and returned to professional soccer, but the concussions worsened and he retired for good two years later in 2011. To this day, he cannot bear light or noise and he says his nerves are “shot”. He wakes up with a headache every day.

Annitta Siliato, executive director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, told the story of her brother, Paul, who sustained many concussions playing community footy in the 90s. He was later diagnosed with epilepsy, but approved by his neurologist to drive.

A seizure in his car led to an accident, killing his wife and precipitating a manslaughter charge and imprisonment for him. Ms Siliato said he got no little medical support, but concussion advocates helped.

Peter “Wombat” Maguire was in tears as he told the inquiry that he had suffered a brain injury in a local footy game in 1994, but despite his symptoms had struggled to get medical recognition for his condition until he saw Dr Alan Pearce.

“It all just gets put down to PTSD,” he said. “Everything is treated as mentally ill. You get treated like there’s something mentally wrong.” Maguire said that not until he worked as a volunteer at VFL club Frankston did a club doctor raise with him the possibility of CTE. “I’ve got an anger because this is preventable,” he said.

Maguire praised the courage of Anita Frawley and the Tuck family for keeping the issue in the public eye despite their own trauma.

Support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 and Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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