Schulz’s scary tale on trauma

A FORMER Richmond and Port Adelaide forward with brain damage from head knocks says the AFL urgently needs to create a multimilliondollar compensation fund to help concussion victims.

Jay Schulz is one of 10 explayers who have undergone head scans as part of a Swinburne University study to learn how concussions have affected them.

Last month, Schulz received confronting results, showing that 19 areas of his brain had permanent trauma. The 37year-old, whose last AFL game was in 2016, estimated he had 40 to 50 concussions during his 194-game career.

Schulz told News Corp his family had been seeing side-effects of his head injuries, including anxiety, depression, mood swings, insomnia, and memory loss, for two years.

He was also concerned about long-term issues, such as whether he might suffer from neurodegenerative diseases like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Under a plan pitched by concussion campaigner Peter Jess, former top-level footballers who suffered from long-term effects of head knocks would have access to a fund that the league added $25m to annually.

“I wanted to be one of the 10 guys that did all the testing because I knew it was starting to affect me, my family, work and I wanted to know what I can do to help,” said Schulz, who was now AFL Tasmania’s coach education manager.

“The AFL have tried to do things as best they can, as quickly as they can.

“The work they’ve done in the concussion space in recent years has been amazing. But we need to do something for the guys that it’s happened to because in 20 years they could be a vegetable and need care.”

Schulz, who played for Richmond from 2003-09 then Port Adelaide from 2010-16, was knocked out four times during his AFL career.

The three-time Power leading goalkicker said many players were not aware they could get concussions from more innocuous hits and still have long-term consequences.

Players at all levels needed extra education on the issue.

“The ones where you go up in a pack, come down, hit your head on the ground, see stars, do your concussion report but at the end of that you seem fine again and keep playing ... they’re the ones that caused the most damage to me because the brain does not get a chance to rest,” he said.

“I easily would’ve had three of those every season over 14 seasons and all of a sudden it adds up to 40, 50 concussions.

“Players need to be educated more and spoken to by past guys who know what’s going to happen or are having things happen to them now.

“When you get that first knock, it’s about stopping then.

“Not ‘am I OK? I’ll continue on’.” Schulz would happily visit clubs to spread the message.

“The AFL can tell them things, but it takes a past player for everyone’s ears to prick up,” he said.