GAA is playing catch-up when it comes to concussion – Clerkin

A PROPOSAL to allow a concussion substitute so head injuries can be assessed on the sideline will be complementary to the current ‘if in doubt, sit it out’ policy, the chairman of the GAA’s medical, welfare and scientific committee says.

Former Monaghan footballer Dick Clerkin heads the committee that has brought the motion to this point, even though it is being proposed by the Standing Committee on Playing Rules.

But he is confident that the allowance of a substitute will not adversely impact the current policy and if there is any doubt, no player should be able to return and the substitution will have to become permanent.

The rule, if passed at Congress on Saturday, will allow a substitute in line with what is in place for blood substitutions at present.

Proposed last year by Offaly club St Rynagh’s, it was withdrawn but rerouted to the medical, welfare and scientific committee which had been in consultation about it for the last two years.

“There were a lot who wanted to pull it, there were legal issues, and suggestions that it was a hornets’ nest to get into that. But I said, ‘It doesn’ t matter, we have to move on it.’ Everyone is moving around you, rugby, soccer, moving on to do better. Our policies need to reflect that,” said Clerkin (right).

“In the last six weeks even, look at the way the conversation has moved on with rugby, the studies of players and the impact of concussion and what is happening in soccer now with the temporary subs coming in,” he added.

“You have to move at that pace and you have to look at your own rules and even though we had to come up with a GAA solution, a rule that could be implemented at county level with all the resources and medics but equally can be applied at junior B level anywhere in the country,” Clerkin explained.

“It had to fit in and that would probably be the biggest challenge all the time. How do we put in something that moves the thing on but equally could be implemented when you don’t have a medic, when you don’t have someone trained? Getting that balance was the tricky thing.

“This allows medics, players and mentors a bit of time and space for that assessment to be made. At least now there is a proposal for allowance to make a proper assessment but

the policy still stands; if at that stage there is still a doubt over it, you sit them out and make a permanent substitution.”

Clerkin accepts that it could be open to exploitation but adds that many rules are exposed to that if the motive is there.

“That was probably the single biggest concern around it. We did a risk assessment on the rulings and listened to all the voices and that was a common trend that it was potentially open to abuse. There is no avoiding that, if that is somebody’s wont. That can be said about a lot of rules that are there. Like a lot of rules, there is an element of trust and good faith but that being said, that (abuse) would be in the minority.”

He sees an upside though, in that the deliberate delaying of games at crucial times because of on-field head assessments could be curbed.

“We feel that there is a stronger potential that it will be used as a deterrent for cynical play which we know is there at the minute with players going down in the closing stages of games holding their heads.

“In the last couple of years, referees have been mandated to stop play with a head injury but they can do nothing to kill the clock and let the player be looked at, whereas now there is the facility to examine so a player goes off and someone can come back in at the next break in play. If I’m that player, I’m not going down holding my head and I’m not going to get myself taken off.

“There is as much a likelihood of a positive impact on cynical play as a negative impact,” he predicted.