National Rugby League side Parramatta is "preparing to take landmark legal action" against the league's insurer, QBE, over its "denial of a career-ending payout" to former player Anthony Watmough -- a move that "could open the floodgates to similar actions across the code," according to Nick Tabakoff of THE AUSTRALIAN. Parramatta Chair Max Donnelly said that the club was now "virtually certain" to go to court against the insurance firm. QBE denied the insurance payout to Watmough last year over the knee injury that ended his career 12 months into his four-year, A$2M ($1.5M)-plus deal with Parramatta that was not due to expire until the end of '18, claiming the injury was "pre-existing." QBE was brought into the game in '14 as the insurer of the top 25 footballers at each NRL club, "ostensibly to protect players" after Newcastle Knights player Alex McKinnon’s on-field accident that "left him a quadriplegic." But its ruling against Watmough "has left Donnelly seething." Donnelly: "We’re paying tens of thousands of dollars per annum in insurance to cover just this sort of eventuality. If they don’t pay out on this, why do we have insurance? It’s outrageous." QBE’s ruling "has massive implications" for the NRL’s 16 clubs. It creates a "ticking time-bomb" for other players hit with career-ending injuries -- "with more believed to have lodged claims with QBE since Watmough" -- and potentially leaves clubs "liable for millions of dollars in payouts that they thought were covered by the insurer" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 3/15).
