Experts call for change as football world reacts to Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer CTE shock
West Coast says a premiership forward battling concussion symptoms won’t play in 2020 as the fallout continues from a bombshell diagnosis of Geelong great Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer. Should the bump be banned?
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Graham “Polly’ Farmer’s bombshell CTE diagnosis has triggered calls for the bump to be banned and footy’s “fabric” to be changed forever.
As the fallout continues from the Farmer revelation, West Coast coach Adam Simpson confirmed premiership forwared Daniel Venables won’t play this season as he battles ongoing concussion symptoms.
Venables hasn’t played since suffering a heavy concussion in Round 9 last year when he was hit in the head by an opponent’s hip before striking his head on the Perth Stadium turf as he fell.
“We’ve worked very hard with Dan to try and get him best prep and see where he’s at physically,” Simpson said after West Coast’s loss to Essendon in the Marsh Community Series.
“It just hasn’t pulled up well enough and he’s going to take the rest of the year off. It’s really disappointing for him and obviously his family, but it’s the right thing to do.
“He’s in good spirits. He’s been preparing for this for a little bit. We’ll work through as best we can, and put our arms around him as much as we can.”
As concussion-stricken former high-flyer Shaun Smith warned there were “a thousand more Polly Farmers out there”, coaching legend Mark Williams led a push to stamp out dangerous hip-and-shoulders.
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And the American godfather of CTE research Chris Nowinski says there would be a dramatic reduction in future cases if all contact training drills were banned and juniors prevented from tackling until 15 years of age.
The AFL last night said it had enforced tough new concussion guidelines for this season to address growing fears over player retirements forced by head knocks.
But Greg Griffin, the lead lawyer behind a proposed Federal Court concussion damages claim against the league and its clubs, said the Farmer revelations were a litigation “game-changer”.
“It is clear now that concussions that have not properly been handled by sporting bodies are killing people,” Griffin declared.
The league has been hit by a spate of retirements because of concussion including Liam Picken, Matt Maguire, Sam Blease, Jack Frost, Justin Clarke, Patrick McCartin, Leigh Adams and Koby Stevens.
Port Adelaide legend Williams was the man who called on the AFL to crack down on headhigh hits, which resulted in landmark tribunal penalties and a massive reduction in dangerous blows.
He told the Herald Sun he believed the next step was banning the bumping of unsuspecting players given how dangerous sub-concussions and concussions were.
“I don’t understand why we bump,” he said.
“I remember when Byron Pickett got rubbed out for six weeks for a bump and I put it to everyone at that stage — why not eliminate bumps and just tackle.
“When both players are going down to pick up the ball a collision is going to occur but not too many players get injured in that instance compared to others when you have the opportunity to tackle and you don’t. Change it and make it safer for players.”
Ex-Demon Smith, 50, was “knocked out cold” 12-14 times during his 109-game career with Melbourne and North Melbourne on top of dozens of sub-concussive hits.
He believes he is suffering from his own CTE symptoms.
“I saw what Polly’s family said in the paper about him being angry and having mood swings … and I just went tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. “It was like reading about me. I felt sad for the Farmer family.”
Ex-St Kilda and Brisbane hard man Matt Maguire, forced from the game from concussion, wondered whether he would want his children to play in the aggressive manner he did.
“I was brought up to never take your eyes off the ball and if you do you are a coward,” he said.
Dual Richmond premiership star Jack Riewoldt labelled the Farmer revelations as “scary”.
“You don’t think straight when you have got a concussion. I look back on mine and it scares me a bit.”
Top sports medico Peter Larkins said the only way to truly limit the incidence of concussion – in particular the asymptomatic subconcussive episodes – was to change “the fabric of the game” and make it less of a contact sport.
“We’re known for our physical sport, we are known for our tackling, we are known for bumping – overseas people love to watch the game,” Dr Larkins said.
“Perhaps we have been fooling ourselves, perhaps we need to be making the game less physical. I can’t believe I’m saying that, I love watching footy.
Whether they even (need to) get tougher. It’s the fabric of the game that we are going to change a lot.”
The AFL does not contribute a cent of its own funding to concussion research, with the $250,000 annual research funding coming from player fines.
But AFLPA CEO Paul Marsh said that level of funding was appropriate.
Concussion advocates like Peter Jess have called on the league to fund as much as $10 million a year for research into concussion diagnosis but also rehabilitation techniques for players battling the effects of recent concussions.
Jess called on the AFL to begin “sensible negotiations about compensation for the approximate 6500 past players likely to be suffering long-term neurological damage”.
“We knew from the science that it was only a matter of time before we would have confirmation that CTE was and is a product of AFL football,” Jess said.
The league said in a statement it would “continue to invest in research to better identify and manage concussion”.
“The AFL thanks the Farmer family for their important contribution to research in this area, which further enhances Mr Farmer’s legacy in Australian football,” it said.
“The health and safety of all players in our game is paramount and as knowledge and understanding of concussion has increased, the AFL has strengthened match day protocols, changed the Laws of the Game to further discourage high contact and has improved the identification of potential concussive incidents through the use of video.”
JUNIOR CLUB HEADS HELMET PUSH
Every player who runs on to the field for Camberwell Sharks Junior Football Club does so with a helmet on.
While neither the AFL or Yarra Junior Football League have laws requiring players to wear helmets — at any age — the Sharks have strict policies aimed at keeping their players out of harm’s way.
Sharks president Shane Myers says the club gave helmets to every junior from under-8s to under-12s (about 400 in total).
“It’s not an opt-in process,’’ Mr Myers said. “It’s about kids’ safety.
“If they want to play at our club they need two things: a helmet and a mouthguard. Our mantra is ‘no helmet, no mouthguard, no play’.’’
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With no proof that helmets protect players from concussion and research suggesting they may even lull juniors into a false sense of security and cause more harm than good, clubs remain divided on their use.
Most direct parents to the AFL’s concussion policy and leave it up to mums and dads to decide if their kids wear padding.
But at Camberwell Sharks players aren’t given a choice until over the age of 13.
“It’s hard for the younger kids in particular to figure out how to protect themselves,” Sharks child safety officer Andrew Hind said.
— With Peter Rolfe
Originally published as Experts call for change as football world reacts to Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer CTE shock