My question is what are we going to do when the fact that tackling alone (i.e. even tackles that don't make contact with the head) is enough to regularly cause minor concussions becomes widely known, and that those minor concussions overtime are enough to cause serious damage to the brain.
What studies we have suggest that overtime those concussions can be just as hard on the brain as a bunch of big concussions, and in a contact sport like RL they are totally unavoidable and are often undetectable in the moment unless a doctor examines the person specifically looking for them.
What are we going to do then, ban tackling and become a touch competition? Because that is the only logical conclusion if we keep following the path we are currently on.
I'm deadly serious when I say that this sport (and every other contact sport) needs to decide what it's going to do about this now-
Either A. accept the risk of CTE as part of participating in the sport and try to mitigate the effects of concussions after they happen.
Or B. try to do everything possible to prevent concussions that in reality are inevitable, and eventually come to the inevitable conclusion that the only way to make a safe sport out of a sport that is inherently unsafe is to fundamentally change it by effectively reforming it into a non-contact sport, thus effectively killing the sport and replacing it with a new one.
I don't know what the answer is, and I don't think there really is a right or wrong answer in this case, but I will say this; I accepted the risk of life changing injury, or even death, every time I stepped on the field to play a contact sport, so I can't see why I wouldn't have accepted the risk of CTE as well had we truly understood the risk back when I was still playing (in fact I'd argue we've had an understanding of the risk my whole life, but that is an aside).
I’m with ya - people might say I’m a dinosaur, and that my thoughts/ideas are too simplistic, but below is something I put on the Sharks forum on a similar conversation;
‘I’ve always been a bit of a tragic, and watch every minute of every game, however this last couple of years, I find myself watching just a couple of other games and then catching the highlights of the rest. People will think I’m a bit of a dinosaur, but the stuff that used to keep me interested when watching as a neutral were the battles, the prospect of a massive hit or fight at any time, the chance that any game could erupt into a blood thirsty battle with some real spice and angst between the 2 teams. Banning the shoulder charge and punching, whilst understandable, has massively reduced the fun of things in my opinion, and I have absolutely no doubt this is why Origin viewing is down recently - people love the battle, love the atmosphere that real hatred and thesubsequent possibility of violence creates.
There’s too much pandering to the doctors and lawyers, and trying to appeal to Mums of kids who’re never going to take up rugby league.
UFC/MMA is the fastest growing sport on the planet - their audience is getting bigger and bigger - like it or not, there’s a thirst for brutality, yet we’re moving further and further away from it - yet every highlight reel shown on either 9 or fox inevitably has footage of the biggest hits, shoulder charges and biff... when people reminisce about great games of old, they don’t talk about the amazing handling and rarely even talk about the superb tries, they talk about the battles on the pitch, the rivalries and even god forbid the fights.
When people look back on old duals they loved, rarely is it halfback vs halfback in a battle of skill they talk about, it’s the big boys going at it, or it’s Tommy walloping every more skilful half in the game.
Our game has a much better chance of not only surviving, but growing if we embrace the beautiful brutality of our sport. Tighten up our contracts and playing agreements to nullify the doctors and lawyers (player disclaimers etc), let those who are tough enough to play the sport crack on with it, and market the sport as we did with Origin in the 90’s on the rivalries, the hatred, the bad blood - build stories that people buy into and can’t wait to see what happens. Going the way we are, we’re trying to attract an audience that is never going to convert - UFC/MMA has shown the audience is there for combat, let’s embrace it!’
Ultimately, we’re a contact sport, that people CHOOSE to play, and CHOOSE to make a living from. We now know there are very real risks and consequences of playing our sport, but to eliminate that risk fundamentally changes the sport, so instead of doing that, draw a line in the sand, accept there might be some historical claims coming our way, but draft up new playing agreements that the players have to sign with a disclaimer that they understand there are known risks, some potentially lethal, and that there may be risks we do not yet know about that come with playing our game, and by choosing to participate, they accept that risk and cannot hold the sport liable for any consequences down the line. That way, we can just get on with enjoying the game we all fell in love with.
