That’s the most egregious example
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Never gets old . It's a beautiful image for describing being decked, reamed , or receiving a fist sedative.
I loved it but tbf it's a coward punch from a cheese eating backward marching flog or whatever the quote is.
Fantastique! Tres bien!
No I'm more inclined to charge him with insurrection, trying to take over governments with his no new stadiums policy and his continual telling politicians what to do.And of course his continued denial of RU stealing RL assets in France during WW2 and never being returned. On that basis I'd throw in treason.
yes, it's not a left or right issue.
Check out his bye round podcast. The interview episodes are outstanding.
Could you please cut n paste for us blebs who don't have an subscription?Credit to Webster standing up to him today, great read:
Peter FitzSimons is hurting the concussion cause, not helping it
The former Wallaby would have greater impact if he took us with him on his concussion crusade rather than continually belittling us.www.smh.com.au
Geeez, to be a fly on the wall at the smh offices.Here you go
Peter FitzSimons is hurting the concussion cause, not helping it
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports Writer
May 3, 2024 — 5.05am
There is nothing quite as boring as columnists trading barbs in their allocated space in their own newspaper over a particular issue.
Media writing about media: such self-indulgent gibber.
But when colleague Peter FitzSimons writes a piece as condescending and personal as the one published online by the Herald on Thursday, well, you’ve got to fight, for your right, to party.
FitzSimons took exception to my column on Monday about the debate kicking around in the NRL concerning the kick-off and how it should be banned to avoid concussions; a debate that came into sharper focus on Anzac Day when St George Illawarra centre Moses Suli suffered a head clash with Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and didn’t return.
My argument, essentially, was Suli was concussed from a kick-off, not because of it, and that if we’re going to ban them we may as well ban long drop-outs or any other kick in general play in which the ball hangs in the air and defenders come rushing through.
Whenever I write about concussion, I endeavour to bring some balance and nuance to a serious debate. I appreciate how sensitive it is, not just to the players and their families, but also the clubs who care for them.
James Tedesco is treated for concussion after Bailey Simonsson’s high shot.Credit: Getty Images
I talk to those at the coalface, particularly coaches, many of whom believe tackle technique is a key but forgotten issue.
FitzSimons decided to ridicule the column, along with Dragons coach Shane Flanagan, who I quoted.
As his long-time colleague, it hurt but didn’t surprise. He does these things to most people who offer a contrary or slightly different position to him on concussion.
He has been relentless. He lectures players, most recently Roosters captain James Tedesco, about retiring. He’s slammed clubs, coaches, and commentators.
His constant take-downs of former Bulldogs captain James Graham, who has talked openly about his own concussion issues in a well-meaning podcast with The Australian, have become tedious.
It’s too much. Rugby league people are growing tired of being positioned as out-of-touch bogans who don’t care about their own.
We’re told to look at the likes of Steve Mortimer, Wally Lewis, George Piggins, Mario Fenech, Paul Green and others, all of who are suffering – or suffered – some form of dementia, as proof that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) exists.
Oh, we’re all more than aware that it exists. We know these people personally and know of their struggles.
We’re told that the game is about to be litigated into oblivion if it doesn’t get serious about concussion.
We’re aware of that one, too. Barely a month goes by when an ambulance-chasing solicitor doesn’t reach out to me, hoping to convince former players to join a class-action against the NRL.
We’re told that the concussion protocols aren’t enough, to which I ask: are you people watching the game? Do they see how often players are leaving the field for head injury assessments? The players who don’t return? Who are stood down? Who are retiring early?
I’m not sure how many clubs, coaches, players, and officials to whom FitzSimons speaks, but I talk to them all day, every day, and I can assure you the issue is foremost in their minds.
He preaches about concussion. These people are living with it.
When you cover the game for long enough, the young players you reported on 30 years ago become middle-aged men with wives and kids and they become your friends.
I see and hear evidence of CTE in those players regularly. The slurred speech, the memory loss, the erratic and impulsive behaviour. They know it. They’re not fools.
One former player, who I won’t name, reckons CTE is a myth. At a recent lunch, he told me the same story three times. I worry about him immensely.
How dare someone accuse us of not caring about these people, our mates, just so they can fill column inches to prove they’re right and we’re wrong.
I’ve also come to understand that CTE can be a lottery. I speak to someone like Souths and Canterbury legend Bob McCarthy, who at 77 remains so clear of mind he can recall the colour of the electrical tape wrapped around an opponent’s head in the 1970s, but despairs about how many of his former teammates and foes don’t recognise him when he visits them in a nursing home. He wonders how he’s OK and they are not.
I wrote a book about his former coach, Jack Gibson, who I visited in the final weeks of his life at an aged-care facility in Sydney’s south, watching on as his wife, Judy, kissed him on the forehead even though he had no idea who she was. It was heartbreaking.
So, too, was the day I stood a metre from Roosters captain Boyd Cordner as his bottom lip quivered at his retirement media conference. His teammates present that day teared up with him.
The Roosters were flogged as heartless pricks for not making him quit sooner, their care for their player dismissed because it didn’t fit a particular narrative.
Then there’s my own grandfather, Hector Maxwell Gould Webster, who played rugby league, fought in a war, laid bricks, built houses and bought his beer by the pallet. He died of dementia.
So, in summary, we get it Fitz.
You hang your journalistic hat on your coverage of concussion and that’s fair enough. You were the first and that will never be forgotten. You deserve credit for fighting the good fight.
But wouldn’t it be more effective to bring people with you on this concussion journey, instead of continually belittling them?
Peter FitzSimons is hurting the concussion cause, not helping it
The former Wallaby would have greater impact if he took us with him on his concussion crusade rather than continually belittling us.
