Outgoing AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan has claimed that the league "will be answerable" if any malpractice is found in regard to concussion during the Supreme Court class-action lawsuit filed against the league earlier this week.
As reported on Tuesday, former Geelong premiership star Max Rookie will act as the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court class action.
Acting on behalf of Rooke, Margalit Injury Lawyers claim that their client sustained numerous life-altering head injuries across his tenure as a Cat, many of which are alleged to have been mistreated.
On his own website, Rooke wrote that he developed "a reliance upon pain killers and other pharmaceuticals" to deal with "depression, brain fog, anxiety, constant muscle aches and joint pain following more than 20 concussions and many knee and shoulder injuries".
The Rooke-led class-action comes less than a fortnight after former AFLW player Emma Grant and Bulldogs premiership player Liam Picken filed similar suits against the league and their respective clubs.
In response to the lodged lawsuits, McLachlan told Fox Footy on Tuesday night that the league would take ownership of any possible malpractice, but also stressed that the competition took its "duty of care seriously".
“I haven't seen the case, but I read the blurb today and what I read in that is not the AFL I know, both at community level and elite level,” McLachlan told AFL 360 viewers.
“If there's an issue there, we will be answerable to that. What I'd say is that we take our duty of care seriously, the doctors take their duties of care seriously, there are good people who've taken this seriously for a long period of time.”
McLachlan's stance came on the evening after the league reported that it would be spending upwards within the vicinity of $25 million to tackle the ongoing grey area surrounding concussion.
Said funds will be used to study the long-term effects of concussion across a five-year period.
The program's announcement comes in the wake of posthumous studies finding CTE located in the brains of St Kilda great Danny Frawley and Australian Football Hall of Fame legend Graham 'Polly' Farmer.
While speaking on assumed risk in the contact code, McLachlan also delineated that the league still had ground to cover when researching and understanding the subject.
“When everyone goes out in the field ... there's an assumption of risk, but they do that knowing all the things we're doing,” he added.
“I think we take it very seriously and we take our duty of care seriously.
“You ask and talk to parents, and I've got four kids who all play, three girls and a boy, and I go there knowing that we are leading the way, both in terms of investment, decisions we've made, the length and for over two decades making these decisions, the medicine is imperfect.
“In the end, I put them out there knowing all that that we're doing the best we can and that there's an assumption of risk. But I want them to play and be active and live their lives.”
