Geelong has been identified as the AFL club at the centre of claims it entered into a confidential agreement with one of its players regarding future brain injury liability.<\/p>\n
The claims, first reported by the Herald Sun and discussed extensively on SEN, allege the agreement was made about two years ago with a player who had a history of concussion.<\/p>\n
According to SEN chief football reporter Sam Edmund, the agreement required the player to assume legal responsibility for any future brain injury, prompting widespread concern across the football industry.<\/p>\n
\n
\u201cWe\u2019re expecting an announcement from the AFL shortly and it\u2019s unclear if Geelong will play a role in that and whether the player\u2019s identity may be revealed,\u201d Edmund said on SEN.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re shocked and it\u2019s hit the football industry wide. To what level the AFL knows of this is unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geelong had not publicly commented on the claims at the time of publication.<\/p>\n
The AFL Players\u2019 Association has also confirmed it was unaware of the reported agreement until recently.<\/p>\n
Edmund said AFL rules require player contracts to comply with the league\u2019s standard playing contract and collective bargaining agreement, raising questions about whether such an arrangement could be legally enforceable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe AFLPA believe it\u2019s not legally binding anyway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Former West Coast coach Adam Simpson questioned how such an agreement could have been approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a coach\u2019s eye, it\u2019s hard to really fathom how you would get to the conclusion that this is a good thing to do,\u201d Simpson said on SEN.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe often say we\u2019ve got the player\u2019s health and safety and welfare at heart. It is the number one priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long-time player advocate Peter Jess described the reported agreement as \u201cone of total disbelief\u201d, arguing clubs had a responsibility to provide players with a safe workplace.<\/p>\n
Sydney Swans coach Dean Cox also weighed in, saying concussion remained \u201ca very serious issue\u201d and player welfare must remain the priority.<\/p>\n
The AFL is expected to issue a statement as it examines the reported agreement and whether any league rules were breached.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong has been identified as the AFL club at the centre of claims it entered into a confidential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-845257","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\/845257","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=845257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}