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Milking It


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I am going to say something that may seem out of touch, but, to hell with it.

I hear so many people talk about eradicating the concussion epidemic, or words and sentiments similar to.

Now I have heard of the extreme cases of trauma in NFL, so much so that the NFL have settled in the favour of former players. Perhaps I haven’t been paying attention, but, I don’t recall the running stories of rugby league players suffering post footy due to head trauma from their playing days.

Maybe that’s because the issue has not been at the front of mind for the media in the way it has in the past 5 years or so. But even in the last five years, when head safety has been such a topical subject, I still don’t hear the multitude of stories of former players living a difficult life primarily affected due to the severity of head knock/s they incurred as a professional RL player.

Have I missed some major stories of RL players that are suffering due to the physicality of RL?

Further more... what do we want our sport to be? There are popular sports in this world that openly invite head trauma. That doesn’t mean I openly invite spear tackles back into the game, but are the NRL going too far?

I am divided on this subject

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1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

I am going to say something that may seem out of touch, but, to hell with it.

I hear so many people talk about eradicating the concussion epidemic, or words and sentiments similar to.

Now I have heard of the extreme cases of trauma in NFL, so much so that the NFL have settled in the favour of former players. Perhaps I haven’t been paying attention, but, I don’t recall the running stories of rugby league players suffering post footy due to head trauma from their playing days.

Maybe that’s because the issue has not been at the front of mind for the media in the way it has in the past 5 years or so. But even in the last five years, when head safety has been such a topical subject, I still don’t hear the multitude of stories of former players living a difficult life primarily affected due to the severity of head knock/s they incurred as a professional RL player.

Have I missed some major stories of RL players that are suffering due to the physicality of RL?

Further more... what do we want our sport to be? There are popular sports in this world that openly invite head trauma. That doesn’t mean I openly invite spear tackles back into the game, but are the NRL going too far?

I am divided on this subject

https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/march-2021/family-workshops-share-the-load-of-long-term-brain-injury

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/rugby-league-legend-ian-roberts-discovers-permanent-brain-damage-after-testing/news-story/608249ab4814493588216a420841ee25

https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/09/03/carl-webb-opens-heart-for-others-as-he-fights-toughest-battle/

 

That's just a few. I'm not arguing what percentage of these issues was or wasn't caused by RL-related head injuries. However - there are several cases where playing RL, on balance of probabilities, (at least) exacerbated a predisposition to neurological conditions.

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Thanks for sharing @Alan Robertson, three helpful articles.

The scary part was that which notes CTE being impossible to diagnose until an autopsy. 

Unfortunately the work of Dr Mobbs is still full of the words “maybe” and “could”. 

Is there a higher proportion of dementia or CTE in RL players than the rest of society? You would hope if there was conclusive evidence, that we would have heard about it. If requiring autopsy, I hope many more players that feel debilitating illness allow their brains and bodies to be studied.

If research came out and said the result of playing rugby professionally for three or more years would see you have a 75% chance of brain damage, would that turn you off the sport? Can the game ever be less tough than it is now and still be entertaining?

Great articles and evidence, but still on the fence.

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5 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

I hope a large percentage of the feigning can be eradicated.  Real blight on the game.

Seems Holbrook has turned Poacher to Gamekeeper then.  If these are his ethics, he didn’t adopt them in SL.

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6 hours ago, Man of Kent said:

Yeah,it’s becoming a blight on the game especially over the last 2 rounds with even the slightest contact above the chest resulting in mass appealing and players appearing to be shot.

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Nelson Asofa -Solomona ... oh dear . I mentioned the Proctor one at the time . Bit rich from Annesley though , bring in this zero tolerance approach and dissection of every tackle by the bunker , and then get frustrated by the way the players work it . Players work every rule. Maybe tell his VR officials not to get spooked by every player going down holding their neck or face and then work back to find them a penalty almost automatically , or overreact to things . That’ll be a start. But this was always gonna be a knock on effect . 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Every game reviewed, if a player is seen in the review to have been milking a penalty he gets a point against him, collect 5 points automatic 1 match ban, three players banned this way in one team in a season, coach fined and banned from next 3 games.

Visit my photography site www.padge.smugmug.com

Radio 5 Live: Saturday 14 April 2007

Dave Whelan "In Wigan rugby will always be king"

 

This country's wealth was created by men in overalls, it was destroyed by men in suits.

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15 minutes ago, Padge said:

Every game reviewed, if a player is seen in the review to have been milking a penalty he gets a point against him, collect 5 points automatic 1 match ban, three players banned this way in one team in a season, coach fined and banned from next 3 games.

Very hard to adjudicate that someone is milking pain. I can’t see it happening.

 

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54 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

Very hard to adjudicate that someone is milking pain. I can’t see it happening.

 

Its easy to see that a player struggling to get to his feet can suddenly sprint to make a tackle, easy to see that contact with the head either didn't happen or was so slight it could not possibly have floored a player.

 

 

Visit my photography site www.padge.smugmug.com

Radio 5 Live: Saturday 14 April 2007

Dave Whelan "In Wigan rugby will always be king"

 

This country's wealth was created by men in overalls, it was destroyed by men in suits.

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5 minutes ago, Padge said:

1. Its easy to see that a player struggling to get to his feet can suddenly sprint to make a tackle,

2. easy to see that contact with the head either didn't happen or was so slight it could not possibly have floored a player.

 

 

1. That doesn’t mean a player wasn’t hurt in a tackle and would struggle to get to his feet.

2. No contact with the head is one thing, but players aren’t staying down when they haven’t been touched. When contact does come to the head, then you can’t feel someone’s pain and adjudicate whether it hurt them or not. 

it’s impossible to rule on.

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7 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

1. That doesn’t mean a player wasn’t hurt in a tackle and would struggle to get to his feet.

2. No contact with the head is one thing, but players aren’t staying down when they haven’t been touched. When contact does come to the head, then you can’t feel someone’s pain and adjudicate whether it hurt them or not. 

it’s impossible to rule on.

It is, and I'll tell you what, coaches will soon be giving out different instructions.

Visit my photography site www.padge.smugmug.com

Radio 5 Live: Saturday 14 April 2007

Dave Whelan "In Wigan rugby will always be king"

 

This country's wealth was created by men in overalls, it was destroyed by men in suits.

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