The causes and cures for anti-social athlete behaviour will be among the hot issues covered at the SKA player welfare seminar on 31 August at Sydney Olympic Park.

The inaugural "Best Practice Player Welfare" seminar includes a presentation from Sonia Francis – a former executive of the eminently successful Canterbury Crusaders Rugby Union franchise and current lecturer at La Trobe University.

She will be joined by, among others, Jeff Bond a leading sports psychologist, in examining current issues that affect players. They will look at ‘life-after-sport’ and the range of unfamiliar circumstances that confront athletes from the traumatic - such as depression, mental illness and alcohol abuse - to the mundane; what to do next.

The responsibility for preparing a high performance sportsperson for "life outside the bubble," throws up an array of social, moral and legal questions says Francis – the architect of New Zealand’s national player welfare system.

"There is a growing interest in the future direction of player welfare and there has been considerable dialogue over the last decade, at all levels of sport, about athlete-employer relationships."

"The Sport Knowledge Australia seminar aims to take a viewpoint that is independent of sporting bodies and player associations to present an unbiased and academic analysis which examines current practices."

At the seminar Francis will reveal and dissect the results of a survey of current practices of player welfare managers from around Australia and New Zealand.

Please click here for more info on the Player Welfare seminar.