Player moves, deals, pick trades and more with Charlie Curnow, Zach Merrett, Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver in the mix for new clubs on day nine
Elsewhere in the football world, Geelong champion Tom Stewart has spoken out about the effects of a concussion which has ruled him out of this year’s grand final.
Stewart was concussed in the Cats’ preliminary final victory over Hawthorn, was automatically ruled out of the season finale due to the AFL’s minimum 12-day concussion protocol, and told Triple M on Monday evening that he would not be able to play no matter what.
Cats’ Tom Stewart watches the grand finale.Credit: AFL Pictures
The 32-year-old actor said, “Not at all. When it happened, I completely fainted and lost about an hour of my life; I don’t remember anything. I was conscious and awake and ran away of my own free will, but I don’t remember anything. I went downstairs with my immediate family for about an hour, but that’s the first thing I remember.”
Had the injury occurred before the Cats’ finals campaign, he was unsure whether he would have been eligible to return had he previously suffered a head injury.
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“I’ve had multiple concussions throughout my career, I have a young family and I take this pretty seriously. Based on these symptoms and the way they presented, I would give myself every chance,” he said.
“I had one not too long ago and I came back and I probably wasn’t right so I would have taken a tougher stance going back into the grand final so I might not have been willing to come up short.”
While the club supported him through an emotional and huge final week, Stewart admitted he found it personally “exhausting”.
“The club told me after the incident to stay away and take as much time as you want, but I’d rather the boys see me and know I’m okay. I went to the open training day and I went to watch the boys train and see the fans, to see that the support and the emotion was really special. I needed to take some time off after that session because I was tired of trying to pretend on the outside that everything was okay and make sure the players were okay. “At the end of the game, I just wanted to to sleep.”
