Source : ABC NEWS
A former West Coast Eagles player who experienced poor mental health after he was delisted from the club has added his voice to calls for the AFL to establish a mental health round in the wake of Adam Selwood’s death.
Brayden Ainsworth was drafted by the Eagles at pick 32 in 2017 and made his debut the following year, but played only 14 AFL games before being delisted at the end of the 2021 season.
Ainsworth spoke out after the sudden passing of Selwood aged 41 over the weekend, just three months after the death of his twin brother and former Brisbane Lions player Troy Selwood by suicide.
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No details have been released about the circumstances of Adam Selwood’s death.
He played 187 games for West Coast from 2002 to 2013, and was part of the club’s 2006 premiership win against Sydney.
“He was such a kind, caring man [who] just wanted to help as many people as he could,” Ainsworth told ABC Radio Perth of his memories of Selwood.
“You always left his presence just feeling energised, happy, safe.“
The Eagles honoured Selwood before their match against St Kilda at Perth Stadium on Sunday and went on to record an emotional 28-point win.
Making a difference
Ainsworth now runs mental health workshops for young men and revealed he had lived with anorexia over the years, and was now committed to using that experience to help others.
The former Eagle has thrown his support behind a dedicated mental health round in the AFL, which he said could help break down stigmas around seeking help and raise funds for more services.
The Eagles and Saints held a moment’s silence to pay tribute to Selwood before their clash in Perth on Sunday. (Getty Images: Paul Kane)
“But the thing with it is there might become funds, there might be ways you can then raise the money and then that can help and go back into community, [into] services,” he said.
“I think that’s what the point of the mental health round is, it’s not ‘OK let’s all put some different colours on our jersey’.
Former Eagle Brayden Ainsworth says young men would benefit from an AFL mental health round. (ABC News: Benjamin Gubana)
“[It’s] let’s raise some amazing funds, as much as we can, then put that back out into the community, and I think that’s the way that the mental health round can really work to then fund services and advocacies.”
Ainsworth said that broader focus was important if a mental health round was to make a difference, particularly in helping young men open up.
“I think the flow-on effect could be so important and ripple into … grassroots footy, then into Auskick. I think it can have a major effect,” he said.
“One round’s not going to change everything, but I think the awareness and the resources you can get off the back of it to then help others and provide a platform [could help].”
‘The tipping point’
Ainsworth, speaking about his own mental health experience, described the period after he was delisted as the “most challenging of my life”, one that culminated in a period in hospital where “it was looking like I wasn’t going to make it out”.
Ainsworth (left) played 15 games for West Coast and now works as a youth mental health advocate.
(AAP: Daniel Munoz)
“It was all to do [with] … the physical and mental health from the delisting and the self-worth, but I guess the shame and the guilt of what I was going through. And football, getting delisted was just the tipping point,” he said.
“There was a lot of things going on through my childhood and then into football that I never talked about, which was all around body image issues, anorexia, and that’s what I ended up in hospital for.”
He praised the support services offered by the AFL, individual clubs and the AFL Players Association but said he found it difficult to reach out.
“When you reach out and you ask for help, that’s when it becomes real,”
he said.
“And I think that’s the scariest thing is because, OK, [you realise] what I’m going through is actually a thing, it’s not made up in my mind.
“These thoughts become true and that’s when it can become a really hard thing to navigate.”
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