Former AFL Players Association chief Joel Bowden has called for a Senate committee hearing into a secret concussion waiver signed by a Geelong player, describing the arrangement as "gambling with a young player's health and safety."

Geelong had a private agreement in 2024 with an undisclosed player — one with a history of concussion — requiring the player to assume all legal responsibility for any future brain trauma. The club avoided AFL sanction when the deal was revealed on Thursday, and has since removed the waiver after widespread outrage (Nine). The AFL and AFLPA issued a joint statement saying they were aware of a "complex and unique case" in which the player was cleared as fit to play following an AFL assessment (Fox Sports).

Bowden, a former Richmond player who also served as AFLPA chief and is now a member of the Northern Territory parliament, made his comments on ABC Radio Melbourne on Friday. He called the waiver "absolutely outrageous that a young person's been taken advantage of" (ABC News).

He did not stop at the club. Bowden pointed to close ties between Geelong and the AFL, noting that former Geelong president Craig Drummond is chairman of the AFL Commission, and that Geelong chief executive Steven Hocking is a former general manager of football at the AFL. He also criticised the AFLPA for issuing a joint statement alongside the league, saying the players' association needed to "act more like a union." He cited AFL funding of the AFLPA "to the tune of millions of dollars per year" as evidence the two bodies are too close.

Bowden said he did not believe anyone from the AFL or Geelong had fronted a press conference to take questions about the waiver. He called for Geelong to be brought before an independent tribunal to get to the bottom of the issue.

He went further, proposing the matter go to a Senate estimates committee hearing. He named senators David Pocock, Sarah Hanson-Young and other independents as people who could level questions at the AFL. He also said he believed Geelong would ultimately be sanctioned over the waiver, saying the court of public opinion would demand it.

Concussion in Australian rules football is the term for a brain injury caused by a knock to the head during play — a persistent and serious issue the AFL has spent years trying to manage through protocols that require players to pass medical tests before returning to the field. The sport has faced growing scrutiny over the long-term effects of repeated head knocks, with former players launching legal action over brain trauma in recent years.

Bowden's intervention raises the stakes on what was already an uncomfortable week for the AFL. A former head of the players' own union — a man with trade union roots and a parliamentary platform — is now asking why no one in power has been made to answer for a deal that put a young player's future brain health on him alone. That question is not going away.