Former Roosters player had CTE
Peter Moscatt, a member of the Roosters’ 1972 grand final side, has become the second Australian rugby league player diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
The second discovery comes after The Sydney Morning Herald revealed in July that the late, great Canterbury Bulldogs player and coach, Steve Folkes, was diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease commonly linked to repetitive head injury in American sports.
Moscatt was an Easts junior who made 82 first-grade appearances for the club between 1969-75 before embarking on a number of distinguished post-playing careers, including a stint as president of the Rugby League Players Association in the early 1990s. The former hooker died in August at the age of 76 and had insisted his brain be donated to the Australian Sports Brain Bank to further concussion research.
Clinical Associate Professor Michael Buckland, head of the RPA neuropathology department and head of the molecular neuropathology programme at the Brain and Mind Centre,
diagnosed Moscatt as having stage-two CTE. While common symptoms in stage-two subjects can include depression, mood swings, explosivity and loss of attention, Moscatt remained relatively unaffected.
His wife of almost 49 years, Margaret – the sister of league legend John Peard – said Moscatt had complained of headaches, displayed ‘‘a slight increase in his level of impatience’’ and that their niece, Serene, had noticed he would occasionally go offtopic mid conversation. However, Moscatt remained an engaging personality until the end and suffered few of the other symptoms commonly associated with repeated concussions.
‘‘He’s an interesting case,’’ said Professor Buckland. ‘‘It’s unusual to have stage-two CTE at 76. He didn’t die of it. It’s one of those stories where there is a bit of subtlety to it. It’s not like he had it and it was a terrible life destroyed by a degenerative brain disease.
‘‘He was someone who was healthy, looked after himself, was socially and intellectually engaged, had a wide social circle and was a bit of a social-justice warrior.
‘‘It’s not necessarily a death sentence just because you’ve played a lot of footy and think you’re going to get CTE.
‘‘Peter is an example of looking after your brain health, which increases your chances of living a full, happy and healthy life.’’
Buckland said there had been a spike in pledges to the brain bank after the Folkes story, with the total now at 140.
‘‘This is enormously helpful in adding to the body of knowledge of what is known and the pattern of CTE in Australia.’’