{"id":845086,"date":"2026-08-06T02:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T02:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845086\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T02:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T02:20:13","slug":"afl-news-2026-player-signs-concussion-waiver-contract-peter-jess-paul-sakkal-and-dean-cox-react","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845086\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Player signs concussion waiver contract; Peter Jess, Paul Sakkal and Dean Cox react"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL<\/a> Player\u2019s Association has denied any knowledge of a secret contract reportedly signed by a current player with their team that requires them to accept legal responsibility for concussion related injuries.<\/p>\n

News Corp reported on Thursday the deal was struck two years ago after the player suffered concussions early in their career, but wanted to continue playing. They opted not to reveal the name of the player or club.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AFL headquarters in Melbourne. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The report adds that it might not be the only contract of its kind in the AFL, but the league will now likely crack down and stamp out the possibility of it happening again.<\/p>\n

It comes as the AFL struggles to find insurance cover for players who suffered career-ending injuries from concussion. Zurich, who offered the cover for many years, pulled out of doing so in 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SEN has reported that the club is Victorian, and that the AFLPA, when contacted on Thursday, had no idea about the existence of the secret deal. It is currently unclear what level of knowledge the league itself had about the arrangement.<\/p>\n

The Age\u2019s chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal was scathing in his assessment of the AFL\u2019s handling of player welfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFL is excellent at coming out on social causes when it doesn\u2019t need to spend much money, we\u2019ve seen a lot of this over the years on various progressive social causes, but when it comes to looking after its players, there\u2019s a big question as to whether it is taking concussion seriously enough,\u201d Sakkal told Nine\u2019s Today.<\/p>\n

Long-time concussion advocate Peter Jess stated he was stunned to learn that such a contract existed in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy initial reaction is one of total disbelief how a public company can behave in this manner to its most valuable commodity, which is the players,\u201d Jess told SEN.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just unbelievable that they\u2019re not thinking about making sure that these guys have got a safe workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you try and contract out their basic human rights then what you do is create a position no better than modern day slavery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about safety first, safety second and safety third.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sydney Swans<\/a> coach Dean Cox was also asked about the revelation on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only speak on behalf of our club, but concussion is a very serious issue,\u201d Cox told SEN on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that we\u2019ve had players that have had their careers finished through concussion and the importance of the wellbeing of the player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that there is always a risk when you do step on the football field, but our job is to make sure that we try and mitigate that with technique and things you need to control it as much as you can.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to get to an interesting stage now where the legality and liability and where that lies. It was an interesting read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numerous AFL players have retired in recent years due to concussion-related injuries, including West Coast<\/a> champion Jeremy McGovern, Melbourne star Angus Brayshaw and Collingwood<\/a> premiership defender Nathan Murphy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL Player\u2019s Association has denied any knowledge of a secret contract reportedly signed by a current player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-845086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845086","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=845086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}