{"id":624680,"date":"2026-04-23T01:02:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T01:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/624680\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T01:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T01:02:31","slug":"staggered-me-petracca-investigation-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/624680\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Staggered me\u2019: Petracca investigation released"},"content":{"rendered":"

An investigation into Christian Petracca\u2019s horrific 2024 injuries has been completed 681 days after the game. <\/p>\n

The AFL and AFL Players\u2019 Association have finally closed the book on the saga after the former Demons star was rushed to hospital with internal injuries during the club\u2019s King\u2019s Birthday blockbuster in 2024. <\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

Petracca underwent surgery after being diagnosed with a Grade 5 lacerated spleen, four broken ribs and a punctured lung<\/a> sustained during the Demons\u2019 loss to Collingwood.<\/p>\n

Petracca, who was traded to Gold Coast in October, was allowed to return to the field of play nearly two years ago, with the superstar reported to have expressed disappointment in his club\u2019s handling of the incident in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Channel 7 on Wednesday night, journalist Tom Morris reported the AFL has arrived at four recommendations for the league to implement. <\/p>\n

1) Changes to pre-match briefings, including more rigour around what is said to medical staff before a game and detailing local hospitals and necessary communication channels in the case of an emergency.<\/p>\n

2) Emergency management support, aligning a consistent gameday approach across all states and venues<\/p>\n

3) A mandatory biannual emergency care course for club medical staff every two years<\/p>\n

4) A tightened audit process, including the automatic reviews of all emergency match-day incidents<\/p>\n

Asked why the review took so long, Morris said: \u201cBecause the AFL is a slow-moving beast.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason (former players union chief executive) Paul Marsh was done at the AFL Players\u2019 Association \u2014 by his own accord \u2014 was he was sick of how long everything takes at the AFL \u2014 the bureaucracy that the AFL is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dees<\/p>\n

The issue of match day practices varying from state to state was one of the most surprising learnings to emerge. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat staggered me when I found out,\u201d Morris said on Seven. <\/p>\n

\u201cUntil now, they\u2019ve just cherry-picked which ones they want to review,\u201d Morris added.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, every single emergency that happens on the football field will be reviewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anything that requires immediate emergency care (will be considered an emergency). Not a hamstring, obviously. Something that requires care beyond the football field, so automatically to the hospital, someone who gets concussed, rib injuries, ACLs \u2014 they will all be reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published as \u2018Staggered me\u2019: Christian Petracca investigation findings released<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigation into Christian Petracca\u2019s horrific 2024 injuries has been completed 681 days after the game. The AFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,302523,651,10989,283555,302530,1127,2485,302531,216957,302524,17290,4742,7804,25629,677,302529,158179,193695,302528,302525,701,85,302527,302526,299963],"class_list":["post-624680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-automatic-reviews","tag-brisbane","tag-darcy-moore","tag-demon-christian-petracca","tag-emergency-match-day-incidents","tag-fox-footy","tag-gold-coast","tag-health-episode","tag-horrific-injuries","tag-management-support","tag-marking-contest","tag-medical-staff","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-morris","tag-oceania","tag-on-field-instability","tag-paul-marsh","tag-perry","tag-petty-concussion","tag-pre-match-briefings","tag-queensland","tag-sports","tag-tightened-audit-process","tag-union-chief-executive","tag-unusual-head-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}