Allan Stoneham opens up on the horror impact of concussions sustained during his AFL career

Allan Stoneham opens up on the horror impact of concussions sustained during his AFL career

Not long after having his face rearranged, Allan Stoneham amazingly returned to the field. Now he opens up on the horror impact head knocks have had on his life.

Julie Stoneham was preparing to host a dinner party when the home phone rang on a Saturday evening in May 1983.

Her husband’s teammate, Essendon centre-half-back Ron Andrews, was on the line from the team’s away change rooms at Princes Park in Carlton.

Robert DiPierdomenico had ploughed his left forearm through her husband’s face on the halftime siren during a spiteful Round 8 clash between the Hawks and Dons.

“He said, ‘Hi Jules, everything is Okay. We’re going to bring him home’, and I was like, ‘what the hell is going on’?” Mrs Stoneham, 64, recalled this week of one of football’s most violent episodes almost 38 years ago.

“Ronnie told me what had happened and then I turned the radio on and they were talking about it. Then when Allan came home I nearly died.

“His face was so smashed up. He had two black eyes and his nose was badly broken. He looked like the elephant man and I just burst into tears when the door opened.”

DiPierdomenico would cop a five-week ban and the two powerhouse clubs would face off in the next three VFL Grand Finals, but for Stoneham, 27, life would never quite be the same again.

The force of DiPierdomenico’s crude hit had rearranged his face, pushing his nose across his right cheek bone. A brawl broke out, but as the two teams headed for the sheds, Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy sensed an opportunity.

“Sheedy stood me up in front of the other players at half time after Dipper had knocked me into next week,” Stoneham said.

“I had the ice pack on, my nose was on the other side of my face and Sheeds said, ‘Look, are you blokes going to put up with this sh*t from Hawthorn or are you going to help out one of your mates? Because he’s going back on the ground now and you’ve got to stick up for him’.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God’. There’s no way known I should have even walked out of the change rooms. I could barely see out of my eye.

“I was like a punch drunk fighter, wondering what the hell was going on, but I went back on and can remember a few of the Hawthorn blokes looking at me as if to say, ‘You’re an idiot. What the hell are you doing out here?’

“I had some other hits over the years but that was the worst. I was out cold. My face was smashed, but I suppose in those days, especially playing under Sheeds, it was a badge of courage to get out there and keep playing.

“That was the nature of the coach and don’t worry, he’s the best coach I played under but Geez, he was extremely tough and hard and he expected nothing less.

“He expected his players to go to the nth degree for the team and if that meant going out with half your leg or arm hanging off, well, you’d just do it.

“And the crazy thing is, I played the next week, but it was the end of me. I got another hit later in the season, which wasn’t as significant, but everything had slowed down. I was getting tired all the time.”

Julie says it would be years before she realised it, but her husband’s behaviour began to change in the aftermath of the DiPierdomenico hit.

Tests have since revealed damage to his frontal lobe and cerebellum at the base of the brain.

“I think it is the concussions (causing it) because I’m only a year younger than Allan and I certainly don’t have the same issues that he has,” she says.

“Of course, when you get older some of those things do happen, but at 40 when he first started to show some signs that things probably weren’t quite right, well that’s very young.

“One of the big differences in Allan is the really peculiar gate that he has when he walks, which he never used to have, and they do think it has got something to do with the brain and the messages that his brain is trying to send out.”

Stoneham’s steady decline has been troubling, she says.

“It’s awful. I mean he’s my big strong husband. You look at your husband as your protector.

“He’s the head of our family and all of a sudden he can’t do the things that he used to be able to do. He can’t make decisions and he has to stop and think about things – and Allan has always been the one who has very good judgment in our life.

“So it’s very upsetting for me to see that he’s not quite the same man anymore.

“And Allan was always the most easygoing person in the whole wide world but I find now he tends to fire up at things and become cross about stuff that never used to worry him before.

“I’m not saying he’s a violent person but he certainly has not got the same easygoing manner that he had.

“It happened over a period of time, I wouldn’t say it was right at that time he got that really bad knock from Dipper, but we’ve certainly become more aware of it over the years.

“This has been going on for quite some time. He gets very tired, he doesn’t have the same stamina that he used to have and he has changed quite a bit.

“His interaction with people is different and his memory is appalling. It’s shocking. He forgets everything. We are at the point now where I have to write everything down for him.

“He’ll walk up the street and buys half a dozen things but it won’t be anything that I actually asked him to get.

“We went to the market one day and got fish for dinner and when we got home he said to me, ‘what will we have for dinner?’, and I said, ‘we’re having the fish that we bought at the market’. Two hours later he said to me, ‘what will we have for dinner tonight?’, and I said, ‘the fish we got from the market’. A bit later I said, ‘I’m going to cook dinner now and he said, ‘oh, what are we going to have?’

“I mean his memory is just shot to pieces.”

La Trobe University concussion researcher Professor Alan Pearce – the Victorian-based affiliate of the Australian Sports Brain Bank in Sydney – assessed Stoneham’s cognitive function in February.

“When Allan came to my lab, it didn’t seem obvious that there could be any issues,” Prof Pearce said.

“He arrived on time, and the small talk prior to testing didn’t indicate any overt concerns, however it was not until we did the movement and balance tasks and physiological testing for his brain activity that things became apparent.

“He made errors in his balance testing that I wasn’t expecting, and the brain activity testing showed that he had problems with concentration and focus as well as slowed brain processing time, ability to detect the timing of stimuli, and changes in the electrical balance of his brain.

“Allan was also showing significant signs of fatigue that is common amongst people with brain injuries, and something I see often with ex-footballers who have a history of concussions.”

Stoneham has added his name to the concussion damages lawsuit being prepared by veteran player agent Peter Jess.

“There is a very disturbing pattern emerging among past AFL players presenting with significant neurological problems,” Jess said.

“And there are just as many weekend warriors out there who are suffering the same impairments. And the truth is, the peak bodies are still not doing enough to protect the current group of players. My strong view is that governments must now step in and investigate.”

Stoneham says he just wants answers over the steady decline in his health.

“I think everyone pays a price, some more than others,” he says.

“But as you are now aware, the boss (Julie) isn’t happy about my demeanour. Lots of things happen in your life but she’s just like, ‘you’re a grumpy old bastard and you just stumble around some days and it’s not good’.

“I try not to (think about the DiPierdomenico hit) but I think it was the turning point in my life.

“I remember jumping on the tram on the way to work a few days later to see a doctor to find out whether I had lost any sight and from then things just slowly got worse.”

STONEHAM REVEALS HORROR IMPACT OF CONCUSSION

Former Essendon and Footscray star Allan Stoneham has revealed he can no longer walk properly because of head knocks and has joined footy’s concussion compensation fight.

Stoneham, 65, who famously returned to the field after having his face rearranged in a clash with Hawthorn enforcer Robert DiPierdomenico at Princes Park in 1983, has opened up on the extent of the brain impairment that has impacted his life.

Damage to Stoneham’s frontal lobe and cerebellum has affected his ability to walk, his moods, memory and concentration.

He debuted for the Bulldogs in the VFL at age 16, suffering multiple concussions across a 200-game career, including the incident with DiPierdomenico where his nose was spread across his face and his eyesight was permanently affected. He played the following week.

“Everyone pays a price, some more than others,” Stoneham said.

“I think it (the DiPierdomenico hit) was the turning point in my life.

“I remember jumping on the tram on the way to work a few days later to see a doctor to find out whether I had lost any sight, and from there things just slowly got worse.”

Stoneham’s wife, Julie, his childhood sweetheart, said she began noticing changes in her husband’s behaviour about age 40.

“It’s awful. I mean he’s my big strong husband. You look at your husband as your protector. He’s the head of our family and all of a sudden he can’t do the things that he used to be able to do,” she said.

“So it’s very upsetting for me to see that he’s not quite the same man anymore.”

Stoneham has signed as plaintiff in the concussion damages legal case being mounted by veteran player agent Peter Jess and South Australian lawyer Greg Griffin.

It emerged this week that the AFL’s concussion rules are being scrutinised as part of an investigation into the death of former Richmond footballer Shane Tuck.

The Tigers hardman — who took his life in July last year — was later diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) linked to repeated head knocks.

Coroner Simon McGregor said he had already received a report showing correlation between CTE and participation in contact-based tackling sports.

“In this investigation that I have before me this is a player, Shane Tuck, who played in the modern era under the protection of the policies that were around,’’ McGregor said.

“My preliminary view is that the research that has actually been produced to me certainly shows this correlation between a genuine risk of profound lifetime injury in a profit-motivated workplace featuring a high turnover of young people and therefore a long aftermath trail for any consequences.

“But this is just the beginning of an investigation.”

That was a real dirty act by Diper - not tough at all.

It's terrible to read but good that more light is being shed on the impacts of concussion. Deliberate hits like the one Zac Williams did last weekend need to be stamped out, 1 week wasn't enough in my opinion. Give him 2+ to really send the message that deliberate head high hits are completely off limits.

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Originally Posted by comrade

It's terrible to read but good that more light is being shed on the impacts of concussion. Deliberate hits like the one Zac Williams did last weekend need to be stamped out, 1 week wasn't enough in my opinion. Give him 2+ to really send the message that deliberate head high hits are completely off limits.

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At least he got a week. Often that has been just a fine and Carlton tried and failed to get it downgraded. A fine is no deterrent to the likes of Williams on close to $1 million per season.

The AFL can't on one hand say they are serious about concussion and on the other hand hit players with wet lettuce for dangerous acts.

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Originally Posted by Axe Man

At least he got a week. Often that has been just a fine and Carlton tried and failed to get it downgraded. A fine is no deterrent to the likes of Williams on close to $1 million per season.

The AFL can't on one hand say they are serious about concussion and on the other hand hit players with wet lettuce for dangerous acts.

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Why not? It's been their MO till now.

Yet Redders can blow a puff of wind on Davis and cop 3 weeks

The AFL and all its clubs and media folks actually need to come clean and admit that most of the time when someone's head gets collected the player committing the offence knows exactly what they are doing. I've said it before and you can add it to the long list of things you're all sick of me saying, but the game moves slowly when you're in it versus how it looks on camera no matter what the level.

It's time for everyone to stop being apologists for unnecessary behaviour and for the AFL to start punishing it.

Watched the Vid - it doesn't look too bad initially, but Dippa obviously went high - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awkJakQemz4

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Originally Posted by bornadog

That was a real dirty act by Diper - not tough at all.

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Agree BAD this was a disgraceful incident. Alan Stoneham was only 16 when first recruited from Sunshine to play with Footscray and was handed the coveted number 3 guernsey worn by the great Ted Whitten. He remains close friends with many of his team mates at the Bulldogs whilst still attending Club events.

I've found it quite heart wrenching reading/hearing about all these ex players who've gone through this crap. Especially when it's detailed like it is here by Alan's wife Julie. The gradual deterioration from a young age must be extremely confronting for their families. Serious action re compensation must be a priority.

Just read that Alan's adopted son is serving time for murder. Life certainly hasn't been easy for the Stonehams.