Don’t try this at home, but go down to the local oval by all means and take a mate and a footy with you.
Now put into action the superbly fit and muscled super-athlete that you are, and pretend you’re taking the first pass from the kick-off and charging at the oncoming defence at 160-kilometres-per-hour.
Let’s call you, say, Sam Burgess.
Your mate can be a defender charging at the same speed, planning to meet you front-on, effecting a ball, shoulders, head-and-all tackle, after veering in from your left.
To protect the innocent, let’s call your mate James Graham.
Well, let’s not do it at the fastest speed you can muster. That risks hamstrings, knees and shoulders, and doing so much damage you’d have to be taken out and shot.
But simulate the contact in slow motion. Where would your mate put his head and his left shoulder? What would be the natural split-second decision? Now let’s simulate another incident.
You can be a prop forward charging on to the ball in the opposition half. Let’s call you Dave Tyrell.
Your mate can be our man Graham, repeating his front-on charge after veering in from the left again.
Where would he place his head and left shoulder? What would be the reflex inclination?
What if he was so intense, so intent on bringing maximum force to the collision, in that split second his head was side on to your head-Tyrell’s on impact?
Careless, reckless, intentional? In the words of the late Robin Williams, you be the judge.
Or as Phil Gould loves to say – there is the rule and there is a footballer’s rule.
Regardless, the rule says you can’t raise your forearm, the instinctive defensive reaction when faced with an oncoming defender at head level.
Do that and expect a few weeks’ rest, plus the risk of inflicting sickening damage on the defender.
Now let’s talk about the rugby league grand final, which was described as brutal. Collisions of the Burgess-Graham type highlighted the brutality of the match. It was like a runaway truck hitting a brick wall.
By necessity, defences are coached to have a player meeting the attacker front-on and high, locking up the ball.
How much stronger and fitter can players become? How more frightening can the collisions be?
Remove every head clash, shoulder charge, chicken wing and wrestle and the game is still brutal. Look at film of games under the old five-metre rule. There was hectares more attacking space, seconds more time. Ditto for games of just a few seasons ago.
Such is progress. There is so little time is available in State of Origin now, centres seldom have space available, except from rare instances of broken play.
Where will it end? Increasing space to to 12-15m is impractical. The game is surely headed towards fewer players on the field or fewer replacements, or a combination of both.
The game is getting faster and harder. There’ll come a time when humans can’t survive this football evolution.
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