We Eels need to get a wriggle on and win this fucking thing before there is no "thing" to win anymore; before the footy becomes basically unrecognisable on a contact level
Leading sports neurologist Dr Rowena Mobbs ""I must stress that that [CTE] risk is largely due to sub-concussion risk, the repeated head injuries that may not have symptoms with them, but are of equal or higher force than a concussion, causing brain injury and risk of CTE,
That is sounding a lot like a deathknell, ringing into the future.
I boxed(and sparred) and played a little footy when younger. Are some mental issues I deal with today related to those decisions? Unsettling.
How does footy survive in it's current form, let alone boxing , UFC etc?
It's a lot.....and it's a thing.
Replies
Sorry. Forgot article link.(AFL related but samesame)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-23/brayshaw-premature-retiremen...
The game will undoubtedly change in the near future imo. You can't have one out hit ups into a flat defensive line full of massive humans and not expect cte. In the two trials I saw , there were two players knocked unconscious and it was only a trial match. The tigers player must have been asleep for it seemed like 5 minutes. Something has to give to break up the flat line d. I think our game will eventually look like the NFL with forward passing that will distribute the defensive. Pads and helmets will also be standard equipment in rugby league.
The nfl has a high concern with concussions, but you don't see many players laying unconscious as in the NRL.
The UFC is an individual sport , unlike team sports where parents have greater influence on where little johnny plays.
Yes the changes you have described are probably inevitable.
I understand that as a society, we are generally looking to keep people safe and secure but unfortunately, organisations and governments love to wrap everyone in cotton wool lest they hurt themselves. Does it come to pass that the regulations get just too damned much that the enjoyment disappears? Not just in footy but in life ?
As an aside, I had some friends over from the US the other week for a visit. Lovely couple in their 60s but they grabbed my bikes and went on a slow leisurely bike ride along a quiet cul de sac whilst I was at work. All was good until a traffic cop skidded in front of them, did a barrell roll and announced that they halt ! Yes, they had committed the egregious and life threatening offence of failing to wear helmets. Poor guys, considering the traffic cop was the only car in the estate , they honestly thought it was a candid camera set up and started to laugh which didn't help things ! They couldn't believe that 2 old farts couldn't stroll along at 2 KMs/ hr without helmets on a bicycle! My fault - I should have told them that Australia is the land of rules and regulations!
Sorry, back to the league... I cannot understand how the NRL haven't asked players to sign waivers to continue playing ? Maybe that's the future?
I see changes flowing from Juniors. There is evidence that still growing brains are the most vunerable.
If the contact in league is completely different until age 18, the senior game will suffer and change.
IANAL but I don't think waivers help that much when organisations are profiting ant the expense of their employees health. I suspect it will become a workplace safety thing.
A few links just to make sure we are all on the same page as to the problem and its depth
https://actaneurocomms.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40478-01...
https://apnews.com/article/sports-health-queensland-australia-sydne...
https://www.espn.com.au/nrl/story/_/id/38104487/rugby-league-great-...
The league accepts the data
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/01/nrl-and-football-aust...
....and ex players are making their opinions known. They have earned the right to have their say
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/apr/04/rugby-league-brain-in...
Even guys who have this condition severly say tey would play regardless(from guardian link)
"Among the 100 league players involved in the proceedings is the former St Helens and Great Britain forward Nick Fozzard, who has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable CTE.Fozzard revealed in January that specialists told him his brain scan results were among the worst they had seen. “I’m OK so please don’t worry but thought I’d share this: one thing to remember – if rugby league wasn’t the most brutal team sport on earth, I wouldn’t have played it. What a life I had in rugby league.”
He is still suing British NRL
That is why CTE hurts my head
Big Nelson says he is scared and basically only plays for money due to the risk.....then goes boxing....fucking knobhead
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nrl/article-12443667/NRL-enforcer...
I've often said if rugby league never existed and someone invented it today, they'd ban it before it even started. I'm not sure what the answer is for the nrl. Non contact versions of league (Touch, Oztag) have exploded in popularity. People love the concept of league but I can see a day where the game will change dramatically and become unrecognisable to what we have today. I just hope we all still enjoy watching it.
I will fucking hate watching it as much as i hate watching soccer or touch on telly.
Imagine how shit womens footy will be to watch/
CTE is a dehabilitating condition for sure but the fact is scientists cannot work out the reason that only effects some football players and not others.
Some, who were subject to extraordinary impact related concussions never show any signs or symptoms of CTE whereas others who were rarely concussed, show advanced signs.
How do you address a condition that is so arbitrary in its attachment ?
Also I notice it's always the players that have long retired from the game that seek financial redress. Of course one may conclude that if they were warned of the dangers of CTE I'm not sure they would have acted. Would Mario Fenech, if told at the height of his career that he would develop CTE and he better retire forthwith, have acted on this advice ?
Some smokers never get lung cancer. means exactly nothing. The impact on YOUR life may be arbitrary, but the mechanism of damage is not. NRL officially accepts this
As for whether they would do it anyway, see my post above re Fozzard and Nelson above...and this too means exactly nothing
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 14 Next