herbert henry1908
Referee
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What's ridiculous is thinking you can somehow protect people from brain injuries and not end up with a totally different game.
No, you'll end up with the game we have now.What's ridiculous is thinking you can somehow protect people from brain injuries and not end up with a totally different game.
The bloke doing the Report on Sunday Night just said he reckons a mandatory 4 week stand down for every concussion. Is he for real? Not having super stars playing for that long would kill attendance dead.
You might think differently if you were a former player suffering from brain damage caused by playing the game.
You ever had a family member suffer from dementia. I have and it's not nice for the family or the person suffering from it. To know someone all your life and for them not to know you. For them to not even know who they are themself.
You ever know someone who suffers from depression. I work with someone who suffers from it. To hear of their struggles and problems.
Their is still not enough information about concussion and what the long term problems are from it. That's changing, but there is still along way to go.
No, you'll end up with the game we have now.
Peter FitzSimons is a former Wallaby. He knows professional contact sport as well as anybody. He has been speaking to international medical experts. He wouldn't suggest that lightly.
If a mandatory 4 week rest was started players would take appropriate care to avoid head injuries as much as possible which means there won't be as many concussions as there is now.
And if you think there are so many concussions that it would affect the game that much, then you just further prove the point that more needs to be done.
Also 4 weeks is the ideal but a compromise could be reached at 1-2 weeks. The NBA does about 1 week generally.
The bloke doing the Report on Sunday Night just said he reckons a mandatory 4 week stand down for every concussion. Is he for real? Not having super stars playing for that long would kill attendance dead.
If a consensus of doctors say that's what it takes to protect the players as much as possible, then that's what it takes.
Though I think that a case by case analysis by independent doctors would be a better way to go then a blanket month stand down.
Why must it be mandatory though?
Surely someone's health is their own concern. No one else's .
I see your point, but for a big business like the NRL the stakes are too high to leave it up to the players themselves.
Player safety needs to come first even if it's at the expense of hurting their pride.
It'd suck if a player missed out on a Grand final, international or Origin, those are the only times that I'd turn a blind eye at the players discretion.
Might as well ban them from drinking as well. Binge drinking can also cause brain damage.
In saying that I do think the measures being taken to reduce and properly assess concussion are correct. But you will never eliminate concussions from rugby league or any contact sport. In this round alone Liam Fulton and Todd Lowrie Both suffered concussion in ways that can't be outlawed.
Just finished watching Sunday Night. And shock horror, Peter FitzSimons also included his code. He used examples of a failure in duty of care in all codes, including his own, a big part of the story was the brain of his rugby coach being sent to America to be tested.
The experts say there should be a mandatory 4 week rest for all concussed players.
Noone is saying you can completely eliminate concussions. But Fulton and Lowrie and Gidley and all the other headknocked players will be running around sooner than they should. It isn't individual concussions that are such an extreme danger but repeated knocks to concussed heads.
They should all have to sit out 1 game at the very least. It would do a lot for their long term health.
mandatory 4 week stand down for every concussion.... does this merkin think rugby league a Amateur sport. its billion dollar sports competition and it aint going to rest player as it will cost them millions. can you imagine Slater, JT, Smith and Ingles all out of origin because of this rule. The only way the mandatory 4 week stand down will work is if the players ask for it and they are willing to take a huge pay cut.
Peter FitzSimons is a former Wallaby. He knows professional contact sport as well as anybody.
Roberts on Sunrise now saying that he was misrepresented.
He stated that he hasn't noticed any affects. He did get tests to show that he has suffered brain damage however.