Australia has grown increasingly concerned about the issue of brain injuries in our contact sports this year, a problem which gained huge momentum after the ABC Four Corners piece about concussions in Australian Football.
A common refrain has been that if the triumvirate of Australian sporting codes don’t change, they are doomed.
Although it’s great to see some belated attention on the topic, to suggest that brain injuries may spell the end of contact sports in Australia or abroad is getting a little carried away.
Australia’s sporting codes (using AFL as an example) are not going to voluntarily change what is an incredibly successful system.
As such, the pressure to do so will have to come from outside the governing body.
Although there has been an increase in media attention on concussions over the past 12 months, the main factor the AFL would be concerned with is what their supporters feel, not what talking heads say.
Media attention certainly has the potential to shape public opinion when it comes to sport. But I’m not convinced that the majority of AFL spectators (to use one code as an example) ultimately care about the long-term welfare of the players.
We’ve always known about the effects that a long-term career in violent sports has on a player: stories about 40-something players with destroyed knees and wrecked backs aren’t rare.
Even without having a deep understanding of science, no fan can believe that the long-term health of a player wobbling their way to the sideline after a head clash will be unaffected.
Our new understanding of concussions may provide another dimension to the equation. Yet it hasn’t created a new issue, but rather just altered an existing one that fans have happily ignored for decades.
Although fans may gasp and groan when a player goes down after an ugly knock to the head, most of this is forgotten by the time the next week’s contest roll along.
This is not to say that AFL fans do not have a deep love and concern for the players involved, just that they are far more attached to the sport itself than any individual participant within it.
Unless the AFL descends to a level of violence far beyond where it stands now the average fan can allow themselves to be distracted by the spectacle of the league at large, rather than dwelling on the consequences of individual moments in a contest.
Another suggestion is that the AFL will be hurt by a decrease in participation at the Auskick level as concerned parents prevent their children from playing.
While AFL fans may be happy to ignore the well-being of their players, it’s a lot harder for them to do the same to their children. That makes this argument a potent one.
But as long as Australia continues to deify their sporting stars, young Australians will obsess over the sports they play and dream of the chance to play for their favourite team.
Some parents will definitely pull their children out of participating in AFL at an amateur level, but as long as kids desperately want to play Auskick participation levels aren’t going to fall through the floor.
Of Australia’s sporting codes, the AFL is the fondest of change and are probably the most likely to adopt measures to protect its players.
We’ve already seen new laws introduced this season to protect players from opponents sliding in with their knees, so the AFL will certainly introduce stiffer measures to protect their players from concussions.
I find it difficult to see any scenario that could sink a sport as successful as the AFL to implosion from mismanagement or corruption (as has happened in boxing).
There is just too much inertia and interest in the code for it to go down anytime soon.
Concussions are certainly a very important issue in sports worldwide, but the issue isn’t nearly potent enough to take down any of Australia’s sporting behemoths like the AFL.
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