West Coast star Adam Hunter's 'grieving best mate' slams AFL leadership

West Coast Eagles star's 'grieving best mate' pens open letter to AFL leaders calling on them to act on CTE Fri 3 Jul 2026 at 2:20pm In short Former West Coast Eagles star Adam Hunter's best friend has written an open letter to the AFL Commission and league leaders claiming they are failing to protect footballers from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Dave Andrews, Hunter's childhood best friend, says "the duty is on the organisations, not on the players, to inform, protect". The AFL is grappling with a head trauma crisis with 33 footballers now found to have the degenerative brain disease linked to repetitive hits to the head. The best friend of former West Coast Eagles star Adam Hunter, who suffered from the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), has written to the AFL Commission claiming it has "failed" in its duty of care to players. Hunter's friend Dave Andrews has posted a letter to the AFL Commission, whose chair is Craig Drummond, stating more must be done to protect current and future footballers from CTE. "You have failed him," Mr Andrews wrote in the five-page letter that touches on Hunter's sacrifice for the game and pleading for the AFL leadership to better inform its players of the CTE risk. Hunter, who was suffering from CTE when he died last year, was at the centre of a Four Corners investigation, which has revealed that 33 Australian Rules players have now been diagnosed with the brain disease. CTE is linked to repetitive hits to the head and can only be diagnosed after death. 'The duty is on the organisation' In Monday's night report AFL executive Laura Kane said "our job is not to communicate every single aspect of risk that exists in our game" and it is a "shared responsibility". Ms Kane's words spurred Mr Andrews to write the letter in which he stated: "I am not a lawyer, but I know enough to tell you that the position Ms Kane articulated on national television is untenable. The weight of scientific evidence linking repetitive head impacts to CTE is substantial and growing. "The duty is on the organisations, not on the players, to inform, protect, and provide safe systems of play. Ms Kane's statement on Four Corners is directly inconsistent with this obligation at every level of the game.” Mr Andrews, a business manager, has also posted letters on Thursday to the AFL CEO Andrew Dillon and the AFL Players Association boss James Gallagher, West Coast Eagles chair and Fortescue boss Elizabeth Gaines as well as the chairs of ASIC and WorkSafe Australia, Victoria and Western Australia and the junior and local footy clubs Hunter played at. Mr Andrews says he urged the AFL to act and that the league's position is similar to the James Hardie asbestos scandal, where the company knew about the dangers but failed to warn its workers. "The parallel to James Hardie is unavoidable," Mr Andrews writes. "Directors and officers who were aware of health-related liabilities from asbestos exposure breached their duty of care by failing to properly disclose and address those risks. The AFL Commission and its affiliated club boards are in an analogous position aware of a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease linked to the core activity of their sport, affecting dozens of former participants across all levels of the game, and choosing a posture of minimisation rather than proactive disclosure and protection. "I am asking the AFL Commission and each club board to stop treating duty of care as a discretionary matter to be shared or deferred. It is a non-delegable obligation. "Adam cannot be brought back. But the players on your lists right now from the AFL, the WAFL, and the kids running out for South Bunbury on a Saturday morning, the ones training today, the ones being drafted next year, the ones playing community football under your governance, deserve boards at every level that treat their brain health as what it is: a foreseeable risk that the law requires you to address with urgency, transparency, and comprehensive action." The toll of the game In the letter, Mr Andrews wrote that Hunter "was always there for his teammates, always wanted the ball when the game was on the line". He said Hunter's dedication saw him build a great career, winning the 2006 premiership and playing 151 AFL games. "That determination carried him from South Bunbury to Swan Districts to the Eagles and back again," Mr Andrews writes. "It also meant he never complained about or questioned the toll the game was taking on his brain, because persistence was everything to him. "The organisations he played for, and the directors of those organisations, owed him a duty of care that matched his persistence and commitment to them." Mr Andrews signed off the letter as a "grieving best mate". Joanne Brown, Hunter's mother, confirmed to the ABC on Thursday that the AFL still had not contacted them since they spoke about the harrowing details of her son's suffering with CTE. Mrs Brown believes the AFL is in "denial". Hunter, just 43, died last year. Those who suffer CTE can show signs of depression, anxiety, memory loss, cognitive issues, aggression and addiction: including drug and alcohol abuse. Hunter struggled with drug addiction later in his life. While some sports doctors have tried to attribute CTE pathology to drugs and alcohol abuse, neuropathologists such as Michael Buckland dismiss this. Loading...In the Four Corners report Dr Buckland spoke about how some medical professionals heavily linked with contact sports could "victim blame" when it came to CTE and footy. "There can be a culture of victim blaming but there is no evidence that drugs and alcohol cause CTE; in fact, there's evidence of the opposite. "I am a bit stumped as to why sport-associated doctors continue to trot out what seems to be an excuse … it's their fault they've got it … it's not the code's fault." Health and safety of players The AFL has repeatedly maintained that health and safety is the code's highest priority. In the past two decades the league says it has made more than 30 rule changes to protect players' brain health. The AFL only formally acknowledged the link between the game and CTE in April 2023. Seven months later, the coroner inquiring into former Richmond player Shane Tuck's death also recommended the AFL limit contact training to reduce players' risk of concussion, which will be introduced from the start of the 2027 pre-season. The AFL does not have an official CTE policy, but Ms Kane said the league did inform players of the risks involved. In a statement to the ABC, an AFL spokesperson said they were yet to receive Andrews' letter by post but when they did, they would review it. The AFL spokesman reiterated that player safety was the game's greatest priority. "The AFL's highest priority is the health and safety and all players and we continue to undertake significant work to make the game safer," the AFL spokesperson said. "As an industry, we continue to learn, develop and grow to ensure we do everything we can to keep players and the game as safe as possible. "Head trauma is a consideration for all contact sports around the world and as a professional sporting body governing a contact sport, the AFL has clear governance, policy and guidelines around how our game is played. "Considerable resources have been placed around better understanding the link of repeated head trauma and neurodegenerative disease and the AFL has made more than 30 changes to on-field rules and Match Review and Tribunal guidelines over the past two decades to further protect the safety of players in the game and as a league we continue to be guided by medical experts on this." The AFL said as the expert medical research evolved so too did its rules and guidelines. It added contact training would soon be reduced. "Making the game safer is a shared responsibility across our industry," an AFL spokesperson told the ABC. "Through the newly formed Contact Training Consultation Group, clubs are currently working together with the AFL on what training limits will look like in 2027. "Annually, the AFL's Chief Medical Officer, supported by the AFL's broader healthcare team, provide our AFL and AFLW playing cohorts with formal education around concussion, long-term risks and symptoms. "The AFLPA also play a key role in supporting, educating and communicating directly with past players." Watch Four Corners' full investigation into the AFL's brain trauma crisis on ABC iview. Loading...