Legal action confirmed

[Desert Skipper]

Brain damage action confirmed for 75 ex-players

That’s a big, damaging action. Not least because of it’s cunning timing. I obviously sympathise with the plight of these individuals, and hope we can learn lessons from the past to mitigate issues going forward, but I prefer James Graham’s take on it all:

'I am not looking for anyone's sympathy, I have repeatedly said maybe the meaning of life is finding something worth dying for and rugby league was this for me. I have to take responsibility for the way I have lived and played’

Edited October 9, 2022 by Desert Skipper

[Nothus]

The timing feels downright spiteful.

[Agbrigg]

The only winners will be the legal parasites 

[Damien]

It's a minefield. I've seen a couple of interviews with Bobby Goulding too. Jason Netherton isn't too impressed:

 

 

[ATLANTISMAN]

Worst kind of ambulance chasing i have seen, whilst I have 100% sympathy for any ex players who have suffered mental issues this is ridiculous.

The timing also sucks i presume that non of the 75 ex players who have put their names to this action will be attending any RLWC matches ?

 

P

 

 

 

 

[Agbrigg]

What assets do the RFL have to give them the financial gain which they are all after.

[graveyard johnny]

Extremely bad timing - with just days to go till our long-awaited showpiece - they decide to grab the headlines 

[Chris22]

I've made the point before but regardless of what anyone thinks of the parties involved or their representatives. It doesn't matter because this is happening, and we can't stop it.

I have no idea whether the claims will succeed or not but we already face the impact. The RFL's insurance premiums quadrupling for one. I dread to think of the size of the legal bills, or any compensation payout if successful. This is a major worry for the sport.

Thankfully, we've taken huge strides since these players have retired. HIAs being the main one and mandatory stand down periods for concussion. More to do, as always, but we've come a long way in the last 10 years.

Take a look at this video (not the best quality). This happened in 2011 and Luke Robinson played on. That would never happen now and we're better for it.

 

[bobbruce]

Don’t know what the end game is for these players. There isn’t millions of £ swanning about the RFL coffers. If they are successful they will get barely enough to cover their legal fees. Whilst bankrupting the RFL in the process. Then denying thousands of kids the opportunities that they have had. Plus the possibility that they are then opening a can of worms that could escalate into players starting to sue over individual tackles. Some of these players  could do with looking back over some old footage just to check their tackling technique was perfect. 

[Chris22]

14 minutes ago, bobbruce said:

Don’t know what the end game is for these players. There isn’t millions of £ swanning about the RFL coffers. If they are successful they will get barely enough to cover their legal fees. Whilst bankrupting the RFL in the process. Then denying thousands of kids the opportunities that they have had. Plus the possibility that they are then opening a can of worms that could escalate into players starting to sue over individual tackles. Some of these players  could do with looking back over some old footage just to check their tackling technique was perfect. 

If successful, the RFL pay their legal fees.

[Damien]

13 minutes ago, bobbruce said:

Don’t know what the end game is for these players. There isn’t millions of £ swanning about the RFL coffers. If they are successful they will get barely enough to cover their legal fees. Whilst bankrupting the RFL in the process. Then denying thousands of kids the opportunities that they have had. Plus the possibility that they are then opening a can of worms that could escalate into players starting to sue over individual tackles. Some of these players  could do with looking back over some old footage just to check their tackling technique was perfect. 

Indeed, like when Bobby Goulding got a 6 match ban (dropped from 8 after appeal) for this tackle on Neil Cowie on 3m 48s. Didn't Goulding also dabble in boxing after RL too?:

 

[Agbrigg]

9 minutes ago, Chris22 said:

If successful, the RFL pay their legal fees.

What with, the lease on Odsal. They will just fold

Edited October 9, 2022 by Agbrigg

[Pie tries]

23 minutes ago, bobbruce said:

Don’t know what the end game is for these players. There isn’t millions of £ swanning about the RFL coffers. If they are successful they will get barely enough to cover their legal fees. Whilst bankrupting the RFL in the process. Then denying thousands of kids the opportunities that they have had. Plus the possibility that they are then opening a can of worms that could escalate into players starting to sue over individual tackles. Some of these players  could do with looking back over some old footage just to check their tackling technique was perfect. 

The RFL has insurance- believe it pay c£1.5m premiums for - no idea if it will cover this though…

[Whippet13]

Whilst I'm confident it will make the back page of the Telegraph and Daily Mail this Saturday, it strikes me as a very difficult thing to prove.

I'm not aware of any attempt by the RFL to ignore current medical understanding of concussion effects and over the last few years the sport has, quite rightly, adopted a very firm approach to eliminating head shots and enforcing recovery periods. I imagine that will be their defence anyway.

As for Bobby Goulding, he has previously publically admitted to lying about his health to club doctors in order to play in games and cheating on early concussion tests so not sure why he seems to be being used as the public face of the group.

[Desert Skipper]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

Indeed, like when Bobby Goulding got a 6 match ban (dropped from 8 after appeal) for this tackle on Neil Cowie on 3m 48s. Didn't Goulding also dabble in boxing after RL too?:

 

That wasn’t a tackle per se, it was a calculated shot to the head. I wonder how many games you’d get for that these days?

As an aside, watching games from 20 or so years ago doesn’t half show how much more open and entertaining RL could be. No wonder the atmosphere was far better.

[paul hicks]

1 hour ago, Agbrigg said:

What with, the lease on Odsal. They will just fold

i guess the RFL could sell odsal to a developer. that could bring in a few quid

[Wakey Til I Die]

4 minutes ago, paul hicks said:

i guess the RFL could sell odsal to a developer. that could bring in a few quid

They only own the lease, not the land.

[Jughead]

I don’t feel comfortable with Jason Netherton’s argument about drugs or the whataboutery of “well, Bobbie Goulding made an illegal tackle this one time”. Using a man’s suicide attempt as a stick to beat him with doesn’t sit right with me and says a lot about Netherton. Goulding is fine to seek what he feels is owed to him. Whether that is owed to him is another issue.

The game is very different now to even ten years ago, let alone thirty odd when Goulding begun playing. It was almost a badge of honour for players to get knocked out or be dazed and come back on to make tackles and take carries in during attacking sets. Looking back now, that was unbelievable and very dangerous. It makes me cringe thinking back. Thankfully, we’ve moved on from that and player safety is becoming more important with each passing season. 

The crackdown we saw at the start of the year didn’t bother me, while this case would have played a part in it, there’s going to be plenty of data around head injuries that simply wasn’t there previously. The “games gone soft”, “might as well get the tags out” etc group of current players might not be the best people to listen to, when previous eras players were playing with head injuries and likely, wanting to play or carry on playing with injuries. 

I bet there’s plenty from previous eras that have similar issues as Goulding and with James Graham’s openness on his brain injury, there will be many more, regardless of what extra activities they may have partaken in. 

[RigbyLuger]

3 hours ago, Damien said:

It's a minefield. I've seen a couple of interviews with Bobby Goulding too. Jason Netherton isn't too impressed:

 

 

A man who sticks up for Ben Cockayne may not be someone to have on your side.

[Wolford6]

There's a school of thought that the current regime at Odsal had one eye on the lease arrangements when they took over. If Odsal is redeveloped, there may be some compensation handed out to the Bulls.

[Fevrover]

4 hours ago, Agbrigg said:

The only winners will be the legal parasites 

Definitely.

[Liverpool Rover]

They seem to be suing based on what is known now about the consequences of head injuries rather than what was known at the time. It was known that there was the risk of concussions but no one knew about the link between head injuries and dementia. 

[bobbruce]

3 hours ago, Damien said:

Indeed, like when Bobby Goulding got a 6 match ban (dropped from 8 after appeal) for this tackle on Neil Cowie on 3m 48s. Didn't Goulding also dabble in boxing after RL too?:

 

That tackle was the one I was thinking about in my post. If these players are successful then the next cab off the rank regarding litigation will be players suing each other for bad tackles. I wonder what Bobby insurance is like. 

[bobbruce]

3 hours ago, Damien said:

Indeed, like when Bobby Goulding got a 6 match ban (dropped from 8 after appeal) for this tackle on Neil Cowie on 3m 48s. Didn't Goulding also dabble in boxing after RL too?:

 

Having watched that what a thing of beauty Newloves step was before the Perelini try. 

[bobbruce]

3 hours ago, Pie tries said:

The RFL has insurance- believe it pay c£1.5m premiums for - no idea if it will cover this though…

The premiums are so high nowadays because the threat of this is hanging over the game. I doubt it was anything like that back in the 80s/90s. Which I imagine is what you would be claiming against.