Time to talk helmets in Footy

Soften blows for players

PERHAPS it is a lack of will to tamper with the game’s traditions and conventions that is behind the rarity of footy players who wear a helmet.

Certainly the elite of their codes do not have a problem. Triple Coleman medallist Jason Dunstall wore one for a fair chunk of his 256-game 1200-goal career with Hawthorn. Jonathon Thurston, captain of the reigning NRL premiers North Queensland Cowboys, does so now.

And yet there is no united voice on the issue — except to say that concussion and head trauma are bad and need to be prevented.

Helmets can only help lessen trauma and mitigate damage on the field. Modern designs are lightweight and relatively non-intrusive. Any minor annoyance is outweighed by the value they have in a bad knock.

We think disability advocate Jacqui Pierce’s proposal is a sensible one.

Today, the Geelong Advertiser has launched our Use Your Head campaign to try to minimise the risk to junior — and indeed all — footballers.

If wearing a helmet prolongs one young career — let alone life — or prevents the onset of a degenerative disease later it is a worthwhile cause to embrace.

Some will rail against the idea of what they will see as a softening or a ‘nanny state’ approach to the rough and tumble sport they love.

But some such resistance has met nearly every now commonly accepted safety reform from cricket helmets to safety belts in cars.

We feel we owe it to the players — kids and adults — whose skills regularly wow us to look out for their short-term and longterm interests.

And we suspect there will be a time when current footy practices at AFL level will not be regarded as world class patient-first medicine.

(Even very recently retired AFL players speak openly about how easily they were able to get club medicos to let them keep playing when they were ‘seeing stars’ and probably should have been rested.)

That trauma from onfield head blows is a sensitive issue in football is apparent in the AFL’s crackdown on headhigh tackles.

Use Your Head does not just have to be about helmets — it might be mandated automatic rest periods after head impacts of a certain magnitude.

It is searching for and backing precautions that could save a head, a brain, and maybe even a life on the footy field. It’s a discussion worth having.