AFL MUST TACKLE HEAD KNOCKS
If AFL can limit concussion injuries, world’s sports will follow
IT smashes into the ground, but not a shard of glass is fractured. It is entirely intact.
Amazingly the filament within the bulb didn’t snap.
Once again TV show Mythbusters hosts, Adam and Jamie, made me think about how we should be using different technologies, or developing new technologies to solve bigger problems.
One of the first commercially sold bulletproof vests came from Dublin in the 1840s. They’ve been worn and refined ever since. These days you can buy Kevlar vests on eBay.
Dodgy eyesight can be corrected in minutes with a laser beam and you will be back at work within 24 hours.
But, back to the light globe experiment.
Why can the two dudes on a TV program work out a way to minimise the impact of a sig- nificant collision, but sports around the world feel the immediate need to put the necessary research into finding ways to reduce the brain from smashing into the skull and causing temporary and permanent damage?
Every weekend on Australian sporting fields competitors are suffering concussions.
We need to focus on solutions before the long term impact is extreme.
I know there are plenty of studies and conferences about the impact of concussion. There’s evidence that wearing helmets provides athletes with a false confidence that it won’t happen to them because their skill is protected.
The NFL is acknowledging that the crashing blows felt in its game is mashing up the brains of some of the players.
Altering brain mass in the name of sport just doesn’t sound right.
I believe we’ll see and hear from more AFL players speaking about the effects of concussion once they retire.
Already some players, like some in the NFL, have committed to giving their brain to science once they die. That’s a big step, but I feel like we need answers and solutions now. Not in 40 years time when some of the more recent retirees pass away.
The AFL needs to shift a bit of focus and a lot of coin into this field.
They can’t get their money back and reinvest it, but I reckon if they had their time again the $700,000 given to Meatloaf for butchering the Grand Final entertainment would have given the brain injury research an almighty boost.
The massive push for AFLW will mean the number of head knocks also increases. More concussions doesn’t mean we’re closer to reducing them, it just means we’ve got more cases to study.
If the AFL can be the world leader in limiting concussion then sports all over the world will be forever indebted to our national game.
Imagine if there was headwear available to ensure the brain doesn’t ricochet around in the skull when it gets hit.
The NFL, ice hockey, the NRL, rugby union and jockeys worldwide would rejoice.
We need to see Joel Selwood go for the ball, we need Jack Viney to be in a one-onone marking contest, we need to see what Paddy McCartin can do, and the flashy brilliance of Angus Brayshaw.
Our game needs this aspect to continue, but we don’t need players retiring early citing ongoing effects of concussion like Matt Maguire from Brisbane has done. Sam Blease was only 24 when he hung up the boots after too many head knocks.
It’s a sad way to go out when it’s a fixable problem.
Let’s see if our country can be world-leading in this area, I hope it can.