Football seeks concussion answers

‘PUT your hand up if you want to be involved’. St Mary’s senior women’s team is quizzed about whether players are interested in taking part in a concussion study, with an almost unanimous response in favour.

“Then it was, ‘If you’ve had a concussion, put your hand down’, and I think half the room went down,” recalls player Alana Tucker, one of the many female footballers who has dealt with numerous head trauma.

“I’ve played footy for six years and I copped one about three years in. That one did leave me rattled for quite some time.

“As far as I know, it was a bit of a pack situation and I copped a rogue knee in the head and I don’t really remember much before that or after it.

“I remember sitting on the bench and someone telling me I was dribbling; that was it.”

The literature around concussion in women’s football is still evolving, but Epworth Medical Imaging in Geelong — in partnership with Sydney and La Trobe Universities — is developing a brain log for mild traumatic head injury victims using its state-of-the-art MRI scanner.

Almost 25 male and 25 female footballers have volunteered for the scans, which will help EMI Geelong’s clinical director Paul Smith, University of Sydney’s Stuart Grieve and La Trobe University concussion expert Alan Pearce gain a better understanding of what happens to the brain following a concussion.

“There are some early signs to suggest women may be more susceptible to concussion. But again, more research is needed,” Smith said.

“Concussion can have not only short-term effects but long-term effects.

“We want to be able to manage the short-term effects but also prevent the long-term effects.”

Concussion has long been a fascination for the former surf lifesaver.

“I had a couple of concussions myself, not through football but through lifesaving,” Smith said.

“I remember it was a very strange sensation, just feeling pretty hazy for a few days, not being all together there.

“My homework deteriorated — I was at school