Gadzorks
Norm Smith Medallist
- Oct 23, 2015
- 8,517
- 14,212
- AFL Club
- Brisbane Lions
The St. Kilda bloke lacks awareness & therefore is a danger to himself & his team mates. I believe he simply not suited to Aussie Rules.
For mine Brown was pussyfooting around this point, therefor what he said simply came out wrong. I certainly got the impression from Brown he believes the bloke is in the wrong sport.
Hasn't everyone had a great bloke in their side who hit contests like a Kamikaze Pilot, no awareness, always gets injured & is the teams "most likely" to seriously injure a team mate?
Didn't seem kamikaze in this latest one and haven't looked at the previous ones but that's a common trait in players with multiple concussions.
I think the current discussion should be/is if you are getting concussed easily and/or often it is highly likely there is underlying accumulative damage and it looks like that damage can have significant negative impact later in life.
No player wants to retire through injury and invisible injuries like brain damage are much harder to accept. The retirements I've heard about are when the player makes the decision with medical advice, but if a player doesn't take that advice and they appear ok the clubs will play them. I imagine at some point the AFL will face duty of care pressure and will need to do more in this his area. Maybe set up a independent specialist panel of medical experts that players are referred to when they have had multpile concussions. Bit like return to work assessments that happen when you have been off work on workers compensation. The players doctors provide reports but the workers comp doctors make the final recommendations which can include not to return to work. There are already protocols for financial benefits with injury forced retirements.