AFLPA boss Paul Marsh defended his past players transition program,adding that clubs also needed to take greater responsibility when helping players move into life away from professional football. Player sources say there are clubs still not willing to give players enough time to pursue outside work or study.
“We,as an industry,run induction programs for the players,the clubs all have player development managers that work with the players day to day,and this is about trying to prepare players for their life after football,” Marsh said on SEN.
“Yes,we’ve had some issues like the one we’re talking about here,where in Nick’s words,‘players have slipped through the cracks,’ but there have also been many success stories through the programs that we’re running.”
Marsh said the illicit drugs policy was under review,with the league and players working towards an updated model.
“We’re doing a review of it at the moment. We’ve had a very similar structured policy in place since it started,which is close to 15 years ago,” he said.
The AFLPA transition services guide,read byThe Age,provides information and contact details on club requirements,financial help,career advice and lifestyle/wellbeing help.
But veteran player agent Peter Jess has called for a standalone past players’ association to help them deal with a range of issues.
Jess,also a leading concussion campaigner who has forced the AFL to investigate a multi-million concussion fund,has written to senior AFL executive Andrew Dillon and met with him and league chief executive Gillon McLachlan.
St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt has taken aim at the AFLPA and the league’s illicit drugs policy.Credit:Getty Images
“Sam Fisher is a tragic story,it’s worse than sad. Sad you can get over,tragic you can’t. Now he has life-altering circumstances you can’t change,” Jess said on Tuesday.
“He is not by himself. I see it almost every day. I have always said players have lost their work-life balance. That’s why a new past players’ association,a separate entity,is needed.
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“What the players association fails to see is that every current player is a past player at some point in time. The whole paradigm in thinking when it comes to the CBA is:‘we should get as much as we can now,not reserve and preserve’. They need to think long term. They think only in the immediacy of the current CBA and how to divvy it up.”
Jess said there was growing support from former players for a new entity and,while it would need to be properly costed,he said about $80 million annually would be needed.
However,the PA is funded by current players,who already contribute to past-player programs. League sources indicated they would be loath to have so much money they had earned put towards a new body.
Jess said past players should be independently represented in collective bargaining agreement discussions,leaving current male and female players to the AFLPA. The AFLPA did not publicly wish to comment. The AFL was contacted for comment.
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