Almanac Footy: Buttoning Down On Concussion in the AFL

Our great game still exists after 150-odd years, yielding the most ambiguous rules of any ball or collision sport in the world.

I watched the best part of three games over the weekend (Go Sainters!) and each of them had different ‘holding the ball’ interpretations.

Despite listening to Razor Ray and the head of umpiring over the past two weeks, it’s clear that what we see as punters depends on the game and state it’s played in, perhaps even the path the sun and moon have taken.

I don’t blame the umpires. It’s an incredibly tough job and they are all part timers holding down day jobs.

The accuracy and consistency of the decision making comes down to the umpiring department and that ambiguity will continue at different levels whether we like it or not.

Something that can be locked away definitively is the concussion rule and it’s something that the AFL Executive in their wisdom have handballed to the club doctors.

We know that players must have a rest for twelve days after concussion but the thing that I can’t get my head around is getting a likely concussed player off the ground to be tested.

Last year Rowan Marshall in Perth sustained a nasty head collision, jumped up and was about to contest a boundary throw in when the Saints doctor made his way onto the ground to attend to him.

He was abruptly told to get off the ground by both the player and the umpire!

Also last year in Geelong, Jeremy Cameron was sent to sleep in a collision that rendered him unconscious for around five seconds. When the doctor arrived to get him off the ground, Cameron in his delirium pushed him away.

Here’s a quick scenario I’ve imagined. It’s Grand Final Day, Collingwood v GWS.

There’s nothing in it all day in one of the tightest GF’s ever. It’s the ten minute mark of the last quarter when a mistake in the midfield by a Pies player is turned over and Toby Greene is loose thirty metres out.

The ball is picked up by Kelly and passed to Greene but hangs a bit due to the breeze so Greene jumps three feet in the air to reach the ball at its highest point.

The slight delay allows Braydon Maynard to make contact and ‘accidentally’ ‘tunnels’ him. Greene lands on his back then whiplashes his head on the ground as he is totally unsupported without his arms that are gripping the ball.

Greene is unconscious for a few seconds then gets back up, brushes aside the doctor who is demanding he come off the ground, takes a 50m penalty and goals to even the scores.

The doctor continues to remonstrate with Greene but he won’t budge. There’s ten minutes to go and he’s the most likely to win the game off his own boot and deliver GWS their first flag.

Thirty seconds to go and the ball is kicked hurriedly to the top of the square in GWS’s forward line. Maynard ironically makes a brave spoil but it falls into the hands of Greene who is ten metres front and square of the pack. He nails it and it’s game over.

Can you imagine the repercussions  after the game? Blood on the streets followed by a bank of Collingwood lawyers outside AFL House on the Monday.

AFL players are running at speeds we have never seen before. It is inevitable that collisions involving the head are going to happen every week.

Yesterday I only saw one player comply to the doctor’s wishes. Even Scott Pendelbury refused to come off and waited for the quarter time break.

In the ‘olden days’ you were seen as ‘soft’ if you came off the ground with a head knock. A lot of good that did any of us. That’s why the AFL are busy dealing with a queue of ex-players seeking compensation.

The likelihood of something like that scenario I dreamed up is minute I understand that, however the people in charge of our game have a history of being reactionary.

The West Coast drugs problem didn’t occur in 2005/6, it was raised in 2002. The Essendon peptide debacle was handled so poorly it’s almost destroyed one of the great clubs.

The current concussion protocol during a game doesn’t work and needs to be changed before the AFL executive find themselves being dragged from their complacency and tax-free haven in the Docklands.

The NRL are leaving the AFL behind when it comes to the promotion of their game, keeping the rules simple and looking after their fans.

The NRL have an independent person in their ‘bunker’ whose sole role is to identify any potential head knock. If it happens, the referees are notified immediately and the game is stopped. The player is removed from the ground for testing, replaced and the game recommences.

So some may say “why do we need to keep stopping the game”. My answer to that would be that I would rather the game stop to get a concussed player off the ground than wait for two ruckman to arrive and contest throw ups and boundary throw ins!

The umpires are stopping the game now for any type of injury anyway! Why is it so difficult to just have an independent doctor communicating to the umpires ear pieces?

The AFL profited almost fifty million dollars last year. The NRL with its small crowds and it’s independent concussion spotter, profited sixty five million dollars last year.

Whatever you may think of Peter V’landys he ‘walks the walk’ and genuinely has the game, the players and the fans at heart.

I wish I could say the same for our so called leaders. All you hear from them is rhetoric and words such as “a statement will come out shortly (once we’ve seen what the NRL are doing)” or “someone from the executive has a working group attached to that”.

Without the fans the AFL would be nothing. The AFL boast about the crowds but that’s a given every year. We’re crazy about our footy!

There never seems to be anything definitive or ground breaking to help grass roots footy and there’s more interest and investment in giving hack journalists celebrity status, than giving the punters what we want.

Stopping the game for suspected concussions might be a start, as simple as that sounds.