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The AFL has apologised to past players who were "let down" by the league's concussion research project after an independent review criticised the under-funded and under-resourced study.
Key points:
- An independent review has identified plagiarism by the advisor behind the AFL's concussion policy, but said it did not "affect or taint" his work
- The review into Associate Professor Paul McCrory also looked at the AFL / Florey Institute's past players study, criticising it for being under-resourced and under-funded
- The AFL apologised to the past players who had taken part, who it said were were "let down" by how some research and clinical programs were conducted
The league commissioned an independent review into plagiarism allegations against associate professor Paul McCrory and other issues connected with research and medical work on sports-related concussion.
Plagiarism was identified but the panel found it did not "affect or taint" McCrory's work for the AFL, including its concussion guidelines, largely because they didn't "involve the falsification or fabrication of relevant research."
The 260-page report was highly critical of the AFL and Florey Institute's 'Past Player Project', launched in 2014.
"It found the research project was under-funded and under-resourced and suffered from a lack of governance, stewardship and coordination in how it was rolled-out and implemented, and how it simultaneously accommodated clinical and research objectives," the review's major findings said.
"These problems manifested in there being no published research from the study which explained the results of the research imaging undertaken on retired AFL players and confusion on the part of the past player participants as to what tests or procedures related to clinical treatment as opposed to being purely for research purposes."
Review urges completion of player research
The review noted "significant delays" in communicating the research's progress and reporting clinical results and advice back to past players.
It recommended the project be completed if possible and the participants informed of the outcome, as appropriate.
"The AFL accepts the principal criticism of the review directed to it of underfunding and under-resourcing of some of its historical concussion research and clinical care," AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon said in a statement.
"This criticism relates to a number of inadequacies in AFL concussion research between 2014 and 2019 and notes that there have been very significant improvements in both the resources devoted to this area within the AFL and lines of accountability since that time.
"The panel has recommended that the AFL take steps to improve the clinical care aspects for past players and we will act on that recommendation as soon as possible and will consider and respond to all other recommendations in the report.
"The AFL apologises to the past players who gave up their time in the hope of better understanding their own conditions and to assist with the research for the benefit of current and future players and were let down by the manner in which some of the research and clinical programs were at times conducted."
The AFL provided a copy of the review to the State Coroner conducting the Coronial Investigation of the death of former Richmond footballer Shane Tuck.
AAP