Former AFL players are being targeted in lower grade competitions after they retire from the big time, with the parent of Adam Hunter warning the bullying could be fatal.
Hunter was a versatile West Coast Eagles player, best known for his role in the club’s 2006 premiership triumph.
Across 151 games from 2001 to 2009, he built a reputation as a fearless utility.
Hunter died in 2024 at just 42, and later examination confirmed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head knocks.
Now his step-father Rod Brown has revealed he was targeted at local footy level when his AFL career ended – which potentially contributed to his CTE and eventual death.
‘The grand final he played in down here for South Bunbury, the first five minutes he was taken off the field with a gash over his eye that required about eight stitches,’ he told ABC.
Adam Hunter, remembered for West Coast’s 2006 premiership, tragically died in 2024 after confirmed CTE diagnosis
Hunter’s stepfather, Rod Brown, says he was unfairly targeted at local level following his decorated AFL career
‘I think it’s a bit of a tall poppy syndrome. You always get that person that just wants to say ‘I punched Adam Hunter’.
‘But he’s not out there to prove anything … He just wanted to play football.’
Brown revealed that at nearly every club his stepson joined after retiring, concerns for his health led them to plead with him to walk away from football.
‘It was always ‘just one more year’,’ he said.
‘Maybe it’s the high of winning a premiership … He just loved the game that much. It was his life.’
‘I hear people say, ‘oh, he got $250,000 a year’ … But mate, you don’t have to go to work and break a leg or dislocate a shoulder,’ he said.
‘You can’t wear this, you can’t do that, you can’t eat this, you can’t go there … The blood, sweat and tears those boys put in, it’s something else.
‘They’re glorified gladiators basically.’
Jason Cloke suffered repeated concussions and hospitalisations after countless brutal hits during his local football comeback
David Cloke, a Collingwood legend and Jason’s father, has pleaded with the AFL to do more for retired footballers’ safety
Former Collingwood defender Jason Cloke also endured countless concussions and was hospitalised more than a dozen times playing local footy.
His health struggles escalated after a coward punch during a Queensland super rules game left him in hospital.
AFL great David Cloke, Jason’s father, has since urged the league to intervene and do more to protect past players.
Jason now fears he is suffering CTE – which can not be diagnosed until after death – and said former AFL players were definitely targeted.
‘They think you’re entitled to cop it and you should be able to cop it because you’re an ex-AFL footballer,’ he said.
‘A lot of umpires even will go out of their way and pretty much tell you ‘I’m not going to give a free kick to you, I can’t stand you, I can’t stand your family’.’
‘It’s anyone that’s got a profile … They just want to hit you. They just want to be the one that tackles you … [they] don’t even look at the ball,’ he said.
Former St Kilda forward Eli Templeton fractured his skull and sustained brain bleeding after a shocking local collision
‘I had my kids there, crying … the opposition while I was getting into the ambulance [were] calling me f***ing soft,’ he said.
‘I just wasn’t enjoying it after that … My wife pretty much told me I’m stupid to keep playing.’
‘I struggle to get off the couch some days,’ he said.
‘You get in the car sometimes and you’re driving and you’re trying to go somewhere and you’re like … ‘where am I going? What am I doing?’.
‘It’s all the time, and you don’t know if it’s football-related or if you’re just getting older.’
‘You Google my name now the first thing that comes up pretty much is getting king hit. That’s what my legacy is now, getting king hit in local footy,’ he said.
Another example included former St Kilda forward Eli Templeton, who was rushed to hospital after a shocking collision in a local Melbourne game.
The 26-year-old was left unconscious on the field for around ten minutes.
Jason Winderlich broke his neck playing country football, requiring surgery to have a plate inserted for stability
Families of former AFL players say brutal local football incidents demand urgent reform and stronger safety protections
Scans later revealed he had suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.
The frightening incident renewed calls for stronger safeguards in suburban football.
In another case, ex-Essendon player Jason Winderlich endured a devastating injury while representing country club Thorpdale.
He fractured his neck during a Mid Gippsland Football Netball League clash against Toora.
The impact occurred just after he gathered the ball, leaving him unable to continue.
Winderlich required surgery, with doctors inserting a plate to stabilise the break.
The seriousness of the injury forced officials to call off the match in the second quarter.
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