LONG-serving Geelong club doctor and board member Hugh Seward has been recognised for his 35-year career in sports medicine with a Queen’s Birthday Honour.
Dr Seward was made a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia.
A lifelong Cats fan, he was Geelong’s medical officer between 1982 and 2006.
He became a club director in 2010.
Dr Seward is renowned in the football world for starting the what’s now known as the AFL Injury Survey in 1982.
“I am proud that it is the world’s longest running publicly released injury surveillance system in professional sport,” he told the Geelong Advertiser.
“My award is also recognition of the work of sporting team doctors across Australia, and in the particular the doctors at AFL clubs who provide world class care to their players.”
HUGH GALBRAITH SEWARD, Newtown
AM Citation: For significant service to Australian rules football as a physician, particularly to the prevention and management of injuries.
Service includes:
AFL (Australian Football League):
Chief Executive Officer, AFL Doctors Association, 2007-2016.
President, AFL Doctors Association, 1991-2006.
Life Member AFL and AFL Doctors Association.
Initiated AFL Injury Survey, 1982.
Founding Member AFL Research Board, 2000-2016.
Established AFL Doctors Fellowship program, since 2012.
Established AFL Grand Final Symposium, since 1988.
Medical Officer, indigenous AFL Teams, including Flying Boomerangs and All Stars, 2006-2010.
Medical Officer, AFL International Rules Team, 1999-2000.
Medical Officer, Victorian State of Origin, 1986, 1991.
Geelong Football Club:
Medical Officer, 1982-2006.
Chair, Sports Science Committee, 2007-2010.
Director, since 2010.
Life Member.
General Practitioner, since 1980.
Sport and Exercise Physician, since 1994.
Medical Research:
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash Injury Research Institute, 2011-2014.
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Federation University, since 2014.
Conjoint Senior Lecturer, Deakin University, since 2016.
Independent Doctor, Illicit Drugs in Sport Program, Australian Sports Commission, 2011-2014.
Member of Science and Technology in Sport Working Party, Prime Minister’s Science and Technology and Innovation Council, 2004.
Presenter, Advanced team Physician Course, International Olympic Committee, France 2014.
Commonwealth Games:
Director, Games Village Medical Services, Melbourne 2006.
Medical Officer, Delhi 2010, Glasgow 2014.
Medical Officer, Commonwealth Youth Games, India 2008.
Fellow, Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians, 1994.
Fellow, Sports Medicine Australia, 1995.
Fellow, Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, United Kingdom, 2007.
Chair, The Geelong College School Council, since 2007 and Director, since 2004.
