John Barnes pushing to sue AFL over concussion

As I heard today all players sign their contract with the AFL, who are the insurance provider.

Perhaps like the initial WorkCover claim has to come through the Company you work for.

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Disagree. Heā€™s pretty clued up in my opinion and a ripping bloke too.

Hope you treated him better than your Mumā€™s carpet!

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This! That is the AFLian solution to [nearly] every problem.

Put him straight on his side, eventually became responsive and was distraught and confused about what happend.

No i did not pee on him!

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Case solved.

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Barnesy may need to sue the arseholes in the AFL but that shouldnā€™t be necessary with Essendon.

Heā€™s one of our own, and heā€™s in big trouble. We ought to look after him, give him whatever he needs, be it cash, medical treatment, family assistance, anything to provide the best possible quality of life for him and his wife and kids, no strings attached.

Heā€™s part of the Essendon family.

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You donā€™t have to of been ā€œknocked outā€ to get a concussion. Any sort of solid head knock can cause one. Imagine the amount of time footy players cop blows to the head just in marking situations.

Greg Williams has had a lot of trouble with memory loss hasnā€™t he? I look at the way guy like Thomas and Selwood play but ducking into stuff and I canā€™t even imagine the damage they are doing too themselves long term

Anyone who plays AFL knows there is big risks playing, but I still hope he gets the help he needs.

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No, you donā€™t ā€œknowā€ whatā€™s on the line when you go over the white line to play footy. What you ā€œknowā€ is that you might cop a head knock and get banged around a bit or cop a rough hip and shoulder. If someone said ā€œyeah you might get knocked out and have a good story to tell that night at the clubā€ itā€™d be a different story to ā€œyeah you might suffer serious trauma to your brain which, believe it or not, isnā€™t designed to suffer serious, repeated trauma and that will likely lead to you suffering all sorts of mental health issues past age 40ā€. And thatā€™s why this suit exists.

We donā€™t understand so, SO much about the brain and I suspect the very little we understand now is about 20x what we understood in Barnesā€™ day which isnā€™t that long ago.

Wouldnā€™t be surprised one bit to see him get looked after, would be less surprised if this is the last we hear of it and he gets a nice little hush hush cheque.

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I support anyone who sues the AFL.

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It doesnā€™t even have to be a knock directly to the head. Any situation that causes the brain the rattle around can cause some level of concussion, and that can come from just playing contested footy. There is a recorded case of a water skier who suffered brain damage later in life just from the constant bouncing up and down on the water.

As for Barnsey, well, he has a point imo. In the sense that his current health issues may be related to head trauma he suffered playing footy. But Iā€™m not sure itā€™s any different to other injuries. Plenty of ex players have very poor quality of life in retirement because of how farked their body is. Jason Winderlich will have all sorts of issues as the years tick by, and of course there is James Hird, who has a friggin metal plate in his head.

Itā€™s horrible the price some of these guys have to pay just for our entertainment, but Iā€™m not sure they get to sue over it.

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How can it? I donā€™t know the law, but from my logic, you should only be liable if you knew there was a potential problem/risk and did nothing. If the best research and advice said itā€™s fine, carry on, what should the expectation be? AFAIK the NFL research into long term concussion problems only came out in the 2000s

He also may be raising this suit to get the AFL to allow him access to extra medical care.

AFLPA have a fund to provide for ongoing issues, but their lawyers/insurers may be disputing it, as its only being raised many years later.

As I understand HAP, that is exactly what it is about. Insurance Companies denying claims and then forcing court action to get any resolution.

I believe other players have had to go through the same process for various issues. Sue the club or AFL actually translates to sue the insurance company.

Only one thing worse than lawyers - insurance company lawyers.

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Tell me about it.

We had a claim denied by Alliance over a tenant who trashed a small unit we owned. They said the the multiple burn marks in the carpet in every carpeted room, weā€™re not malicious damage but ā€œwear and tearā€ hence not claimable.

Yep maybe some people doing their ironing on the floor, but in every room !

We had to go to a tribunal, where we won, but it was a nasty experience. I really do hate insurance companies.

I have heard real horror stories when it comes to claims for sports related injuries.

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Iā€™m pretty sure it was established the NFL did know.

Regardless, Within negligence law there is scope to hold people to account for risks that one could have reasonably presumed to exist and should have therefore taken steps to mitigate.

Basically the AFL knew or ought to have known about the risks and done more to inform and protect the players.

Iā€™m no pi lawyer but that is the basics of it

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if the nfl knew, then iā€™m sure the american sport sycophants at the afl wouldā€™ve been all over it.

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This.

Basically if they are denying any claim worth less than 10k you should refer it to the ombudsman (or threaten to) because itā€™s essentially a non costs jurisdiction and theyā€™ll spend 10k on lawyers regardless of the outcome

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