Exalting the virtues of the ‘courageously injured team mate’, especially where head injuries are concerned, is a potentially dangerous form of praise that is woven into the very fabric of every contact sport in the country. And it desperately needs to change.
To emphasise my point I’d like to first take you on a concussion fueled trip down a hazy memory lane.
It was a cold mid nineties Saturday afternoon at Chatswood Oval and I had just been knocked senseless by an unfortunately placed and rather hard second rowers knee.
I remember hearing a groan from the crowd along with a high-pitched ‘oh my god’ from the old lady selling sausage sandwiches in the kiosk.
I awoke seconds later with our ever diligent and relevantly named ‘head’ trainer kneeling over me.
While I cannot remember what he said I suspect it was something along the lines of ‘are you ok mate?’ to which I probably replied ‘yes, I’m fine’.
I say probably because I don’t know and I remembered very little from the rest of the game.
I do know that I diligently ran up and down the sideline following the play like some errant puppy wanting to get involved with the big dogs, but not really being sure how.
The final whistle blew and I marched back to the sheds with a splitting headache and wondering the whole time what the hell had just happened.
‘Did we win?’ I asked.
Someone just slapped me on the arse and laughed.
This was possibly the first real sign of concussion because in that team the term ‘did we win’ was either considered an oxymoron or a very rude joke.
In the sheds my teammates all stood around chatting about the miserable refs call that allowed the 7th opposition try while I lay on the physio table watching the brick wall dance before my eyes.
Then it came time to hand out the 3-2-1 votes…. and 1 point went to me!?!
The coach placed his arms around me as I sat up from the table. He spoke of the ‘courage’ and ‘guts’ I had displayed for staying on after what was apparently a ‘sickening blow’.
I was very confused, and began asking what I had done to be named in the points, ‘Nothing’ one of my team mates said, ‘you did nothing. But you stayed on the field’.
I felt proud that I had done all I could help out the team, help that was basically running on the spot with stars flickering before my eyes.
The coach went on with some stupid and irrelevant war metaphor, about how I had shown ‘courage under fire’ (I’ve never understood the whole ‘war’ and ‘sports’ comparison. I’m pretty sure in one you could die and another you could get paid a lot).
Even though I barely remember displaying anything other than confusion, my pride swelled further.
I left the ground that afternoon with a sore head and a seemingly undeserved reputation for ‘courage’.
It’s now 2013 and while rules surrounding players safety when it comes to head knocks are both improving and being constantly discussed, it seems the cultural attitudes that can perpetuate the dangers of head injuries are not.
These all too common attitudes were similarly on display early in the South Sydney versus Warriors NRL match yesterday, but could more than likely be just as easily found in any code throughout the weekend.
The Rabbitohs prop David Tyrell had just clashed heads in a heavy collision with his Warriors opposite.
Tyrell was visibly shaken by the impact and obviously struggling to find his way back into position.
Teammates had to physically help him back to the ensuing scrum, all the while Tyrell could be seen admirably trying to convince his teammates and training staff that he was fine to continue.
The commentators made jokes about how hard both players heads must be and how heavy the accidental collision was.
His teammates could be seen encouraging him and patting him on the back, no doubt grateful for his ‘courage’ and ‘commitment’.
It is this cultural attitude towards the ‘courageous’ injured player that requires the biggest shift when discussing concussion in contact sports.
These attitudes are exalted by commentators and inadvertently promoted by coaches and teammates lauding players ‘brave’ and ‘courageous’ decisions to stay on the field to ‘help out their mates’.
It is not courage that sees a player continue after suffering a heavy head knock, it is irresponsibility.
Like the way that improved and educated attitudes of blood infections led to safer practices around bleeding and bloodied uniforms, the same needs to happen with regard to concussion injuries.
And in conjunction with these tighter rules, the sooner the attitudes and cultures of all those involved in contact sports can be shifted (players, coaches, media and fans included) the safer all contact sports will be.
Gary Russell-Sharam
Guest
Rugby League should take a leaf from Union in that anything higher than the shoulder is punished by penalty. I know it says in the rule book any tackle "head high" is a penalty however you can watch a game of league and see a high shot that hits at the shoulder and travels up to the head in nearly every second set of six and it is not penalised. It should be penalised, any contact with the head should be automatically penalised like in union. I know all the "gung ho" old style leagies and old union boys will be saying "we are not playing tiddly winks" but that's dinosaur thinking and seriously limited in intelligence. I'm not a young bloke I'm 67 and I played in the old era and I've seen the results of too many head knocks etc. In regard to wearing a helmet there is now scientific proof that Helmets do not prevent injury or concussion. The Boxing federation is now looking into amateur fighters not wearing helmets in the ring as studies have proven that it does nothing to prevent injuries from concussion, in fact they are saying that it may be detrimental to assisting fighters in evading a lot of the head knocks that they receive by not allowing the fighter to have a greater peripheral vision to see punches coming their way. Oikee makes a very good point that we should not be using the tragic death of this young man in this instance as an example of head knocks, this tragic circumstance has nothing to do with the subject of this post, it was a terrible accident. and an extremely tragic time for this family, they should be allowed to grieve in private. The league refs should get serious about head contact and police the rules that are already in place, the yells of derision from the dinosaurs will abate with time and we will move on. I'm also glad to see the abolition of the shoulder charge, it was nothing less than thuggery anyway and usually performed when a player was at a disadvantage like in the act of passing the ball with his eyes off the opponent hitting him with no arms in the tackle.
oikee
Guest
Please let us not mistake what happened to young Jake Kedzlie as the issue for headknocks. Like his family have mentioned and highlighted, it was a unfortunate accident. Can we please not use young Jake as a highlight for a problem which is totally irrelivent to this posting. The point has been made as from this weekend. Any shoulder charge that causes a head injury will now be punished. This is what i was angry about with the shoulder charge, it caused the head damage and was going unpunished. So they have fixed this grey area. And as most have highlighted above and we already know, wearing helmets does not cause less damage, it increases damage because players feel fool-proof. It is why i mentioned the guys wearing the headgear all seem to get more headknocks. Plum, Lowrie, Johnson. Does this give them more dutch courage and they throw themselves into the battle with more gusto, which is causing more head knocks. maybe, maybe not. Anyhow, the point is not to try to hit the head. I think with the new ruling now will make sure players are aware that shoulder charges leading to headknocks and you will spend time on the line.
Damn Straight
Roar Rookie
Heck, may as well just genetically engineer rugby league players that have brains that are a 60% silicone/latex rubber/polyurethane/polystyrene blend, 40%nano-bio interface(what the hell is that?) with a usb port for uploading game plans and a vocabulary.
Damn Straight
Roar Rookie
That's just awful news Kurt....my heart goes out to Tommy and the rest of the Raudonikis family. RIP Jake Kedzlie. :(
mushi
Roar Guru
the solution is brain seat belts combined with forehead crumple zones and maybe some airbags
Johnno
Guest
Ian I don't pretend to be a doctor or a scientists, I didn't think about the stuff you were thinking about. I was just floating an idea out there, . Stuff like this is technical , so I wasn't going into the technicalities of it. Tony Greig I thought he used a crash helmet.
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Johnno, how on earth does a cricket helmet stop the brain bouncing inside the skull when a fast-moving player hits another player, causing rapid deceleration *clue* object in motion remains in motion until acted on by an outside force *clue* ? Cricket helmets stop cracked skulls, from when a 1small but hard ball hits the outside of the skull - that is a k=0.5mv^2 problem. Brains bouncing on the inside of the skull are a f=ma problem Similarly, motorcycle helmets prevent skulls being smashed from one-off impacts. They arent designed for repeated head trauma from rapid deceleration. In short, both of these suggestions are up to Johnno's usual standard.
BennO
Guest
Yeah you're right, it's too risky. Probably best to just have touch footy.
Luke
Guest
So then the tackler only gets hit in the head by a knee or hip of an attacker?
BennO
Guest
They won't do anything for the movement of the brain that causes concussion. After all it's a bigger problem in the NFL where they use helmets.
Johnno
Guest
The only way is motor bike helmets. or even cricket helmets, but it would greatly reduce the sped of play, running around with a crash helmet on. Tony Greig had a motor bike helmet style in world series cricket.
BennO
Guest
I think they should just make any contact with the head an offense. Accidental or not. Shoulder to head, head to head, all of it. Pretty quickly players will go back to tackling low and hard instead of trying to put a shot on. Other defenders who would otherwise wrap up the ball will have to position themselves to intercept the offload and the defensive outcome will be little different. I just can't see any other way to truly protect the head. And the more we know the more we need to do so.
Robz
Guest
Actually I think you'll find head injuries are both more common and more serious in American Football where headgear is compulsory. It tends to give players a false sense of security so they actually put their heads in more dangerous positions thinking that they are more protected.
mushi
Roar Guru
No you can't... but you shouldn't be allowed to put them back at risk before they've recovered
mushi
Roar Guru
should be "live in the dark"
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
"While it doesnt stop the brain moving around inside, it certain lessens the seriousness of a head clash." In other words, its completely and totally ineffective *and* encourages a false sense of security.
Damn Straight
Roar Rookie
True Mushi...I guess it is or would be a little grey.
Nostradamus
Guest
Tragic - this wasnt a shoulder charge but accidents do happen in all sports (skiiing, horse riding, football) but you cant lock them in a room their entire lives...Not sure what the answer is apart from minimising the risk which annoys me when top=line footballers say banning the shoulder charge,fighting etc makes the game soft. Its allright for them who have survived many games to get to the top (for the moment when they get older they may pay) but the game is for everyone and the rules of the game should be health first in what already is a tough sport. In this case topp footballers are role models...
Johnno
Guest
Well after today's tragic death, the grandson of Tommy Ruadonkis, if 1 good thing can come out of this, is to get tough on high shots. Best practises in player welfare will be increased now, you can forget about the shoulder charge coming back now. He didn't die by a shoulder charge, but this will really ram home the "head is sacred" in contact sports , ice hockey, rugby union, rugby league, AFL.
mushi
Roar Guru
It's near impossible to gauge as you are relying on players and teams to diligently report concussions and lets be honest if teams are going to like in the very dark shade of grey when it comes to morality over winning