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If you were able to tear yourself away from the Ashes and indulge in your usual Saturday night footy feast, you would’ve seen the alarming sight of a young lost boy at Etihad Stadium.
No, this wasn’t in the crowd or the car park, but in the middle of the field.
22-year-old St Kilda defender Dylan Roberton was levelled by Port Adelaide’s Tom Jonas in the second quarter. His head rocked back and he slumped to the turf.
That same player was interviewed by former Geelong skipper Cameron Ling, now working as a boundary rider, as the players were leaving the field at halftime.
In response to a question about the Saints’ effort late in the second quarter, Roberton’s answer was normal, until he stopped mid sentence, scratched the back of his head and told a national audience, “I don’t know where I am.”
Roberton then looked around as if he really was completely unaware of his surroundings.
It was like a football field with bright lights, aka his office, was completely foreign to him.
Ling asked whether his interview subject was alright and Roberton mumbled, “yeah.”
Yeah! Yeah? My goodness.
‘Yeah’ is the reason Roberton stayed on the field for so long after the incident.
The collision occurred with 7:16 left in the half. That means for seven minutes and 16 seconds a 22-year-old was able to run around a professional sporting field without knowing whether he was at Etihad Stadium or in the departures lounge at Etihad Airways bound for Disneyland.
Saints coach Scott Watters, while conceding their procedures would have to be looked at, defended his medicos after the game by saying the head trainer spoke to the player and he indicated he was ok.
He also told the same to Ling… moments after revealing he had absolutely no idea where he was.
The blame shouldn’t lie with the head trainer though and the medicos did their job at halftime by subbing him off under the concussion rule.
It’s not always easy to tell if someone is concussed straight away.
The head trainer obviously didn’t get the same startling revelation Roberton offered to Ling.
The problem, as Watters alluded to, isn’t just the process, but some of the rules.
The good old fashioned bump, mourned every time it is penalised, is just part of the game.
Jonas ran past the ball to make contact with Roberton with the intention of stopping him from chasing the pill.
Those types of collisions in rugby union or rugby league would result in a sin-bin (maybe with the NRL, who knows what they’d do).
The sad stories of former players who now have minds failing them has thrown the spotlight on how head injuries are thought of and treated.
The NRL tried to act by banning the shoulder charge and that was met by a chorus of scorn from current and former players and supporters.
Those arguments can surely no longer be valid.
Concussion and its effects were laid bare on Saturday night.
It wasn’t shoved on display via a wobbly human on your tv screen or a prone figure on the turf, but a 22-year-old, who seven minutes earlier had been given the all clear, telling a national audience “I don’t know where I am”.
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