00:01What we know is that two years ago, the Geelong Football Club signed a deal with an unnamed
00:07player for that player to guarantee that they would not come for the Geelong Football Club
00:14for liability over any future brain damage or injury caused by concussion.
00:19Now, the AFL is facing criticism over this because it hasn't sanctioned the Geelong Football
00:25Club over this secret deal that only came to light yesterday. We've heard from the AFL and the AFL
00:32Players Association that they've said they had nothing to do with this document, with this waiver
00:38and they're also satisfied that Geelong's intentions were for the player, that they were thinking about
00:46the player's agency and having control over their own career and also that they weren't trying to
00:53have a medically unfit player go back out onto the field. But there's concern about this and we've
00:59heard this morning from former Players Association President Joel Bowden. This is what he had to say.
01:05I think they need to be brought in front of an independent tribunal. All the facts need to be
01:10put on the table and they need to explain themselves because I don't think there's been a press conference
01:16where anyone from the AFL or Geelong have stood there and taken questions. And I'm not discounting
01:23that journalists would ask good questions, but let's put it to an independent committee tribunal to work
01:28through this because concussion is the number one issue in the AFL at this point in time.
01:34So that was Joel Bowden there, a former Richmond Tigers player and former Players Association
01:40president, raising concerns about this secret deal that has since been taken out of this player's contractual agreement
01:50by Geelong, but concerned about this raising a concerning precedent about clubs' liability for their players' future health.
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