Let’s say you’re a junior athlete who is on the talent pathway.
e.g. 16yo kid playing for a private school + Sandringham/Oakleigh/whatever
You do your ACL. (like Jayden Davey)
OK, simple question.
Who pays for the surgery?
Assuming a healthy 16yo doesn’t have Gold Level Private Health Insurance. (And can’t afford to pay out-of-pocket for a private surgeon, nor can afford to wait on a public waiting list)
Does the medical insurance for lower leagues get covered from the AFL somehow?
I’ve got no idea. Genuinely curious.
Very often, if the kid is at a private school or similar, their parents will have private insurance.
Sometime, it just doesn’t get done. Back in the early 2010s when I was watching a lot of junior footy, and indigenous kid who dominated for NT at the chaps as an underager simply wasn’t there next season when his draft year came around. Much later, I found out he’d copped a significant injury and simply couldn’t get surgery. He pretty much dropped out of the system, until a while later when someone or other in AFL-land found out what was going on and basically gave him the money. He had the surgery, but it’d gone untreated for so long and he’d missed so much footy that he never really got back to where he’d been as a player. He made a decent career in the NTFL in the end, but some stories don’t have fairytale endings.
6 Likes
Schools usually do the right thing.
Edit: Specifically in relation to the type of private school you are thinking of.