At just 19 years of age, former West Coast Eagles player Daniel Venables was forced to retire after a sickening collision resulted in seven brain bleeds.
Venabales was knocked unconscious during the Eagles’ 2019 round nine fixture with Melbourne when he slammed into opponent Tim Smith and landed awkwardly during a marking contest.
Speaking on Nine’s Today, Venables said the incident has been life-altering as the now 23-year-old continues to battle the long-term complications caused by the traumatic head injury.
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“I was knocked unconscious, so I went into the rooms and [later] went home that night where my head felt like it was going to explode,” he said.
“The next morning I went and had some scans and that’s when I found out I had seven bleeds on the brain.
“I guess my life changed in an instant straight after that.”
“I’ve suffered chronic head pain and a few other issues and it’s been three years.”
Unable to fully recover from his symptoms, Venables’ career was over after just 29 games. Two years later an AFL medical panel unanimously recommended he avoid contact sport.
Reflecting on the lasting impact the brain injury has had on his life, Venables said that in that moment his whole world came crashing down.
“It’s definitely hard, six months before I played in the 2018 premiership as a 19-year-old (the youngest team member), so I was on top of the world and then I had this accident and I didn’t really know, and no one really knew what the ramifications of it were,” he said.
“That’s probably the hardest bit, the unknown of head trauma and concussion. So it’s definitely hard to come to terms with and we still don’t really know today. I don’t really have any clear path of the future of what’s going to happen and how to get my symptoms better.”
Asked whether the AFL has gone far enough to protect players from a similar fate, Venables declared an overhaul of concussion protocols was needed.
“I feel there’s a lot more work to do, to be honest,” he said.
“There’s so much research that’s coming out and so many new ways of approaching things.
“I think it’s more of a cultural change as well and knowing when you do get a little knock, it’s alright to stand up (for yourself), and I feel that in the past has been hard.
Concussion campaigner Peter Jess agreed the issue incorporated a careless culture within the code.
“I think Dan was right on the money there when he said there needs to be a culture change,” he said.
“We need to shift from bravery to one of respect, so if you think you’re going to have a collision with a player then you need to really think about whether you should stop.”
Jess made an example of last night’s tribunal result in which West Coast small forward Willie Rioli successfully appealed his one-match suspension, despite crashing into Gold Coast‘s Matt Rowell during their Round 1 match.
“You only have to look and see at the tribunal where Rioli cannoned into a bloke’s head and it was deemed not to be reckless or dangerous- yet his hip hit this guy’s head and he jumped into him,” he said.
“I mean if we don’t stop that then we’re in serious trouble.”
With Aussie Rules being a contact and collision sport, Jess agreed a more even balance needs to be struck between the entertainment factor of the game and the duty of care afforded to players.
“One of the points that I’ve made to the AFL, if we look at the biomechanics of how concussions happen, we have to strip that back and find ways we can stop it, and if we can’t stop it then we have to find ways to make it a minimum,” he said.
“By doing that we actually recognise that the dangers of collisions, whether you hit a head or not are still the same because what causes the damage is the transfer of energy from one body to the other. You know it goes to the softest part of the body which is the brain.
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