Crazy that he was allowed to step onto the field after the shot he took in warmups. He was basically knocked out for a second. Storm might be able to seek legal compensation from Tonga for it ? Im not even sure if he'll play footy next year or ever again?
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It's quite unbelievable. Emergency surgery to drill burr holes to relieve pressure. That's super serious and something you'd typically see with a severe head injury from say, a car crash. But to have this happen whilst being supervised playing sport is nuts. The medical staff were incompetent. You're right, he may not play again. There's a long way back if he does.
Took TMM maybe 2-3 years to work his way back. Just insane he was allowed to play if they had the vision of the shot in warmups. He got leveled and was out of it
It's shocking. And Katoa’s welfare has to come first from here on. We’ll probably see tighter protocols?
Beyond this incident, lies deeper issues that some in the NRL, even cluey guys like Gus, have emu heads in the sand. For now. CTE.
It’s not only the obvious, big collisions, concussions, shocking incidents like this one that cause damage. But smaller, repetitive impacts over time that don't seem as problematic. Long-term though are as equally devastating or worse. Remember Paul Green.
Once CTE becomes diagnosable in living players, in real-time, the sport will face tectonic shifts. Not sure what the game will look like after all that passes. But I've been saying it for years: That's the asteroid we aren't looking at.
One disaster at a time, I suppose...
The league needs to come down heavier for dangerous play. The players will soon learn that it's not worth the risk. Yes we all want to see a good tough game of RL, but not if it impacts players longterm health.
That's a sensible take, Longfin, as usual. I think the game is getting cleaner despite bigger, stronger, faster, more powerful athletes and collisions. Coat hangers, shoulder charges, biff, scrum sneganans, used to be commonplace.
If the game gets tougher on HIA protocols, say more than one head knock, you're out, regardless of what tests you pass, maybe we need to look at bigger benches. I like Bup's 6 man bench idea. It's a way to help development as well.
CTE is a different beast altogether. It will change the face of sport and other areas of society. Far more than concussion, safety and HIA protocols.
Once the tech become available to test athelethes in real-time, while they're alive, I doubt the NRL will allow it. They'll be legal wars in all likelihood. They've read the studies (and tried to poo poo it with different angles). It's the repetitive nature of the collisions over time. Not direct head hits or concussive force hits necessarily. Not necessarily big hits or rough play. You don't need to be a head-banger to get it. The brain wobbles inside the skull with traumas. Soccer players. AFL. That'll be effected too. Even army veterans. That's what the studies clearly show, unless we're pinning our hopes on the scientist dissecting brains for a living are on drugs and deluded. Which Gus is.
It will challenge the very nature of our sport: the collision. It's less an if, than a when.
Just goes to show that major accidents can happen when team mates even get into a shoulder to the head situation in warm ups.
I think helmets will come into play sooner than people think and better future technology may further improve safety
Helmets or headgear might help with skull fractures or injuries, but not brain traumas & concussions. Studies on NFL atheletes show that CTE is off the charts. The brain still boggles inside the skull.
Its been proven that the new guardian caps imrovroved head trauma.
The latest research which was co-authored by the NFL's chief medical officer found the benefits of Guardian Caps reducing concussions as "uncertain".
The quotes you've got Chiefy are from the commissioner, Roger Goodell. And what he's done is cherry-pick data which stated from 2018-2023 practice concussions fell 54%-62% following the introduction of the Guardian Cap. However. the research dug into the causes of the concussions and found there was no reduction in concussions when a player's helmet was impacted.
Therefore the research found there "was no longer a significant relationship between Guardian Cap NXT use and the incidence of concussion."
Hard to believe all that extra padding doesn't help. Especially with hip or shoulder into face. Its the NFL's use of the helmet as a weapon thats the issue.
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