The greatest game of all, rugby league, is unique. It’s painful. Its seasons are long. Careers can end in a single tackle.
In this article we’re putting aside concussion (which the league is now belatedly addressing).
We’re talking about Andrew Johns winning the 1997 grand final with a punctured lung. Shane Webke’s 2000 grand final performance with a broken arm. Robbie Farah’s Origin 1 efforts this year with a separated shoulder.
Many of the game’s celebrated stories are about overcoming injury. John Sattler may have played four Tests, and won four premierships, but he’s best remembered for having played the 1971 grand final with a broken jaw.
When we saw this repeated by Sam Burgess two generations later, however, reactions were mixed. Some celebrated his bravery. Others lamented it. Some noted the game’s legal exposure.
Can an employer ask an employee to face such risk, even if they chose to do so?
Sacrifice has always been expected. Picture Dylan Walker playing on with a broken hand in Round 3. While he would later need a month to heal, he stayed on, impaired and in pain. His teammates responded.
“It’s pretty inspirational what he did, and to come out and score two tries is pretty special,” enthused emerging forward Chris Grevsmuhl to the Telegraph‘s Christian Nicolussi.
“He’s a tough kid who is mature beyond his years. It’s not the first time he’s played with injury,” added Tim Grant.
Burgess’s grand final adversary, James Graham, personifies the old school approach, publicly opposing the ban on shoulder charges, concussion rules, or independent doctors.
“We know what the risks are. Why does a doctor tell me I can’t go back on?” Graham asked. “Why can’t that be my choice?”
It’s not just individual players struggling to adapt. Some clubs have been outright recalcitrant. Graham’s Bulldogs have been fined for repeated breaches. The Tigers and Cowboys followed. Incredibly, the Eels were investigated for mishandling head knocks for Nathan Peats, Will Hopoate and Isaac De Gois in a single game this year against the Warriors.
It’s time clubs faced two costs.
Ending careers
Consider Anthony Watmough. His high profile move to the Eels has been cruelled by injury, but he’s forced to play through by a mismanaged salary cap. Before his landmark 300th game he spoke openly about his injuries.
“I’ve torn biceps off the bone,” Watmough said. “I need to get my knee injected every game just to play. My shoulder injected. My fingers go numb every game. That’s just what we do as a sport. It’s a brutal sport, a collision sport.
“We do it because we love it and it’s something I wouldn’t change.”
But at what price? At age 31, despite signing a three-year deal, he is unlikely to match past glories. While he retired from Origin football this year, he did so after being overlooked.
This star, who once achieved 173 tackle busts in a season, may never match these performances again.
Permanent injuries
The league has an obligation to all its players – especially its most vulnerable. Those already injured. Juniors. Those on second-tier contracts, or facing renewals.
It’s time for leadership. Enter Darren Lockyer.
In his testimonial year in 2011, he faced a dilemma. Despite needing three titanium plates inserted for a shattered cheekbone, he was set to play just five days later.
“The plates they have put in will be enough to keep the cheek strong enough,” he claimed in a Fox Sports interview with Chris Garry. Opinion varied though. Former Kangaroos doctor Nathan Gibbs sent a clear message that he risked his eyesight by playing.
Most bravely of all, Darren declined to play. It was the right decision.
He’s remained a leader since. In 2014, when Israel Folau faced a throat injury similar to his own, he urged him not to play.
“I never saw a doctor about my throat injury until years later,” Lockyer told The Australian‘s Wayne Smith.
“I never realised the severity of my injury at the time. It was when I noticed that my voice wasn’t returning to normal that I knew something was wrong.
“But it wasn’t until I was getting an X-ray for a broken cheekbone that the damage to my throat was also discovered. Back then, unless there was concern that you had a broken limb, you didn’t get sent away for X-rays.”
While we can celebrate players’ bravery, we owe them more than this. More for their families and for their lifelong well-being.
Is your club changing its culture to offer players the protection they deserve?
The Barry
Roar Guru
Because they only allow you to perform to your maximum capacity not beyond it. So for instance a player might be at 60%, they have a pain killing needle and it brings them up to 90%. Whereas steroids allow players to perform at say 110% of their natural capacity.
b
Guest
Why aren't pain killers considered performance enhancing substances?
The Barry
Roar Guru
I definitely think that's what it will come down to. If movies have taught me anything it's that the future of sports is the public huddled around burning trash cans watching the running man on massive outdoor screens. Let's embrace it now, throw the WHS manual in the trash can, set it on fire and settle in for a round of murder ball. Sub-zero! Buzzsaw! Dynamo! Fireball! That Ben Richards is one mean mf....
Jay C
Roar Guru
They are definitely an issue either way. What the answer is I don't know. It will eventually either come down to accepting it as a risk or the sport no longer existing I think.
The Barry
Roar Guru
My (limited) understanding is the damage caused by multiple concussions is exponential but each one on its own is a problem. Either way The Hoff has had 3 or 4 in a four month period.
Jay C
Roar Guru
I actually think the big issue with concussion is getting one on top of another. Like if you got two in a game sort of thing. Could be wrong though.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Also - the concussion rules are a bit of a myth. An employer can't indemnify themselves against an injury by saying they had a system in place to manage the injury once it had occurred - which is all the concussion rules are. Take Ryan Hoffman for example. He has been concussed three or four times this year. Assume each concussion has been managed within the concussion laws. If the evidence of the long term damage concussion causes continues to build the way it has then Hoffman has already won any future claim he might make regardless of how the concussions were managed as part of the NRL system.
Jay C
Roar Guru
You're right on all accounts Barry. Mining is considered dangerous and their injury rates are 1 in umpteen hundred thousand man hours. there are 26 man hours in a game of footy and I can't really recall a game going by without a lost time injury. Also I think the biggest issue that you haven't touched on would be players concealing injuries from their team managers/doctors which would be the absolute worst outcome possible.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I'm a workers comp consultant for an insurance broker. I've been in workers comp for 16 years. I understand workplace injuries and WHS. There's no workplace including mines that have injury frequency rates remotely as high as professional rugby league. If you applied a WC mentality with risk assessments and control hierarchies the game would be shut down. There is literally no safe way to play rugby league. I acknowledge the concussion issue but the author is talking about injuries like Webckes broken arm, Johns' lung, Slaters shoulder. If these guys decide to play on good for them. The alternative is that we start over ruling the players. Sorry Johns, no miracle last minute try you're not fit to play. Then we have a situation where a park footballer is allowed to play with busted ribs but the best player in the world is not. Is that what we want?
Bulldog
Guest
Agreed - but that point will move around depending on changing legal and society factors. The recent NRL stance on shoulder charges and concussion is a direct result of these changes. Soft tissues injuries will probably never be an issue it is long term permanent injury that is a concern. The NFL is dealing with the same issues in the US with some significant long term problems linked to head injuries. Workplaces do suffer the injuries you describe above (along with Fatalities) with the major example being the Mining Industry. The onus is on the employer to show that they are doing everything can to limit this risk to the employee, hence the recent changes to concussion rules.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
True that. There is a limit.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
As long as you are not glorifying the role of being 'tough enough to play league' then meh, whatever. A lot of men over the decades - if not centuries - have had to put their personalities on hold while they live up to the masculine standards of the times. It's okay not to be 'tough enough' to play league.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Ok I hear but you can't completely take that WHS attitude towards sport, particularly violent contact sport. If you take that line of thinking all the way there is no way that a workplace that has a workforce of say 700 staff and has 50 injuries that require major surgery, hundreds of sprain/strain and soft tissue injuries, multiple lacerations and concussions plus a catastrophic spinal injury within the last couple of years would be able to continue to operate. There is only so safe the NRL can make the game and at some point players accept the risk to play.
Jay C
Roar Guru
It's not the players fault. Just free market capitalism is out of control. As a society we really should value things differently.
big J
Guest
if they choose to play with an injury that is there decision and they wear the consequence of it, simple.
big J
Guest
Once again mate I totally agree with you. How it is the some people actors and sportspeople are paid millions of dollars to do something that does not contribute to bettering socitey. People in emerency roles, Defence force, police, ambos and Firies and anyone in the medical profession are not paid anywhere near what some overpaid punce is paid to kick a ball in a net, put a ball in a hole or shoot a hoop, and the changes that these people will safe a life at work or be put in a life threating situation is virtually zero. Contact sports are different of course due to the fact that people can and do die on the job but when is the last time you saw a doctor receive 100 million dollars to perform a surgery?
Bulldog
Guest
Exactly my point. If you are on a work site the employer cannot dissolve their responsibility simply because the employee says he is happy to risk his safety.
The Barry
Roar Guru
All employers can be sued for negligence.
turbodewd
Guest
Not sure of the relevance of the Ryan Tandy matter to this thread.
MAX
Guest
Strewth there are some great articles on the Roar and this has been one of them. 10/10 Stuart. Sport gives us the opportunity to participate in an open expression of being physically tough and mentally brave notwithstanding that we call on those qualities to enjoy each day. The Ryan Tandy story (SMH) is a standout piece of journalism on the lot of the lower rung player in NRL. The saddest part was that not one person from HQ attended his funeral.