Hawthorn premiership player Jordan Lewis is baffled why the AFL failed to intervene when he suffered one of the most brutal concussions in 2010, and returned to the field after he was stretchered off.
A report in the Herald Sun revealed the league was given recommendations for dealing with concussions and had become aware of the risks when ignoring head knocks in 2001.
The international report, led by some of the world's experts in the space, suggested players shouldn't return to play or training that same day.
Lewis was running back with the flight before colliding with Western Bulldogs' Jarrod Harbrow. The four-time premiership Hawk was knocked out cold and assisted from the ground. He later played.
“I went back on the ground … the disappointing thing for me was to understand there was information out there that had been backed by the top head trauma guys in the world, and the AFL had been provided that information, yet still didn't act,” Lewis told Fox Footy's On the Couch.
“And it was 10 years later that had happened, so I think the AFL set the guidelines for players to enter the competition, and I take responsibility for the concussion, but I think what happened after that could have been certainly been done better by the AFL with the information that they had been given.
“I would like to know why they didn't act on it.”
Lewis said he "took responsibility" for the concussion, given he knew the risks of playing the high-octane, physical game of football.
Former Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett revealed he was "ropable" of the decision to let the left footer back out onto the ground.
“I was outraged,” Kennett said to the Herald Sun.
“I was at the game. I saw him get knocked out and go to ground and then he ran back out. I was ropeable, absolutely ropeable. I went down there (in the rooms) and said ‘I have never seen anything so irresponsible in all my life'. So I very much regret that it happened.”
Kennett said he called a club doctor into the club's board meeting the following Monday to examine what happened, prompting the club to bring on a neurosurgeon to the board.
“They said he (Lewis) was ‘All right, and perfectly fine to go back on',” Kennett said.
“I said it was totally unacceptable and must never happen again. I remember the board meeting very clearly and I wasn't a happy vegemite. That is why I put a very senior medical officer (neurosurgeon Andrew Kaye) on the board.”
A class action by former AFL players over concussion-related injuries is set for trial next year.
