Craig O’Donoghue: West Coast Eagle Luke Edwards’ concussion retirement is a reminder that sport can be cruel

West Coast midfielder Luke Edwards’ medical retirement this week is another reminder that sport is rarely fair and is often horribly cruel. The rise in medical retirements due to concussion shows the risks all players take to achieve their goal of being an AFL player. They enter the system with dreams in their eyes and hope in their hearts. But some have exited with huge doubts about what the rest of their life will be like. Edwards joined Angus Brayshaw, Nathan Murphy, Aiden O’Driscoll as Josh Carmichael medical retirements this season. None of them did anything wrong. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And that must be hard to live with. Brayshaw won a premiership, played 167 games was drafted at pick three. He played until he was 27. O’Driscoll was 18, didn’t even get to play a pre-season game, was drafted at pick 55. The game didn’t care about age or experience. It didn’t discriminate. The accidents were random. How random? It’s not even like genetics came into it. Edwards’ career ended after an innocuous head clash with Fremantle’s Andrew Brayshaw. The Docker barely flinched, finished the game strongly and received Brownlow Medal votes. But Edwards was floored after having previous concussions. Andrew’s brother Angus had numerous concussions before a sickening collision with Brayden Maynard. Angus and Edwards were forced to retire. Andrew emerged unscathed. Luke’s dad Tyson played 321 games for Adelaide, won two flags, debuted at 18 and retired at 33. Edwards has been forced to stop playing at just 22 after only 37 matches. O’Driscoll’s brother Nathan and sister Emma both play for Fremantle. He has to watch them continue their careers. Unlike Brayshaw and Edwards, Aiden didn’t have a series of concussions. O’Driscoll’s first concussion ended his career. The man who he clashed heads with during training, Bailey Williams, didn’t miss a game for the season. When most players’ careers end, they have time to prepare for the moment. Edwards’ teammate Andrew Gaff was out of contract, spent the majority of the year in the WAFL and was 32. Father time caught up. A lot of the players who have been de-listed in recent weeks have struggled to make an impact at the highest level. They’d have had numerous conversations with their coach and would have seen the writing on the wall. When you get medically retired, you have no idea that your last contest is about to occur. That’s where the game is cruel. Brayshaw had a career to be envied. He won a flag. He played for nine seasons. He’s ranked among the top eight per cent of players ever for games played. But he didn’t get to finish what he started. He didn’t get a warning. It just ended. Brayshaw’s speech when addressing the room on behalf of all retiring players at the Brownlow Medal was sombre. He said, “the absence of football has left a very deep void.” He spoke of “sadness, grief, uncertainty, anger and anxiety.” If that’s how he feels, imagine being someone who didn’t achieve the ultimate success or play for as long. O’Driscoll will never know if he was good enough. He’ll always wonder. That would be a torturous feeling. Then there’s the torture of not knowing how you will feel each day. Former Eagle Daniel Venables spoke of daily headaches. It’s a waiting game. The AFL is just three weeks away from the next batch of bright-eyed draftees entering the system. They are all excited and so they should be. They’ve worked hard to even be in contention. We can only hope none of them have their careers ended by a freak moment that was out of their control. But the last week has been a reminder of how hard it is to have a long career. Edwards retired two days after North Melbourne’s Jaidyn Stephenson. At 25, the Kangaroo had simply had enough. Stephenson won the AFL Rising Star award in 2018, he kicked two goals in a grand final and had 26 touches against Geelong in July. He entered the AFL as a number six draft pick. But he lost the passion. Being a gun junior doesn’t mean you’ll play forever. Tom Boyd was pick one. He walked away from a massive contract at just 23. Fischer McAsey joined Adelaide at pick six in 2019 and retired four years later. He decided to play with his mates late in the 2024 season. St Kilda City Football Club play in division two of Victoria’s Southern Football League. They had lost their previous five games by an average of 98 points. McAsey’s mates from school played for the team so he decided to join them after returning home from an overseas trip. Finals were clearly out of the equation. He just wanted to play. They smashed the bottom team in his first game, winning by 76 points. Then they copped a 103-point shellacking the next week, followed by 12 goal defeat in his third game. But the point here is, McAsey chose when he retired from AFL and chose when he played with his mates. Boyd went back and played with mates in suburban footy too. That’s not an option for Edwards, Brayshaw, O’Driscoll and co. And that’s where sport can be cruel.