Between March and June in conjunction with the Combined Past Players, FifthQtr, conducted a national past player survey with participating AFL Clubs, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, Geelong, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond, Sydney, West Coast and Western Bulldogs.
The response was compelling with over 640 responses received by past players.
Importantly there is overwhelming support for an independent organisation dedicated to providing support to past players with 88% of respondents rating this as important to very important.
We have provided the participating AFL Clubs their individual Club survey reports. This will help them understand what their past players are saying and what support they need.
The survey results have shown that the common themes include, medical issues, experiences with depression, anxiety, mental health and concussion related problems.
Services determined to be of most importance include, employment, legal advice, financial advice and concussion referral / advice.
We have also conducted a number of focus groups with a qualified organisational psychologist with past players, partners and families delving into their experiences with concussion and mental health & wellbeing issues.
We are in the process of collating all the information of the survey and focus groups and working with the Combined Past Players Association to prepare a Better Futures Report to be presented to the AFL and AFLPA.
