NRL searching for answers around Tongan blind spot as Eli Katoa concussion investigation unfolds
A frightening seven minutes has set the scene for an NRL inquest into the brutal Eli Katoa incident, as the league races to investigate how the Tongan star was cleared to take the field.
They were the frightening seven minutes that you never expect to see on the sidelines of a rugby league match.
Seven minutes that are now part of a game-defining inquest by the NRL.
Certainly, these were unnerving scenes that this journalist has rarely seen in 25-years of sports reporting.
At one point, a female staff member of the Tongan team - one of seven players and staff that were surrounding Tongan forward Eli Katoa - needed to use her right hand to stop his head from slumping to his left shoulder, as he began to go limp on the interchange bench in the second-half of the Pacific Championships match against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland.
What the entire crowd watching from the western grandstand could see was that Katoa was clearly in a state of deterioration, following three separate head knocks across the previous hour.
We have all seen the disturbing images of Katoa being helped onto a stretcher board, then a medi-cab with an oxygen mask attached to his face.
We also now know that Katoa was rushed to an Auckland hospital for emergency surgery to release fluid on his brain.
What the NRL are looking into is the entire process of which led to some of the most traumatic scenes that we have witnessed during the NRL this season. There have been calls for heads to roll over the incident.
The NRL appreciate the point of view, but won’t react until they have all the information. Don’t think for a second that NRL CEO Andrew Abdo is treating this lightly, from the game’s point of view, out of respect to Katoa and also on behalf of Katoa’s upset club, the Melbourne Storm.
It can be revealed that of most concern for the NRL and where they are chasing answers is how and why Katoa was allowed to play against the Kiwis after suffering a blow to the head from teammate Lehi Hopoate during the pre-game warm-up.
What separates the collision in the warm-up from Katoa’s ninth minute HIA and then his second and game-ending HIA in the 51st minute is that the warm-up head knock was only captured by the TV broadcasters.
The NRL’s concussion monitoring system isn’t set-up for pre-game warm-ups. The concussion monitoring system involves multiple layers of assessments during a match, including sideline spotters, an independent doctor in the bunker, and the use of technology to review replays of head knocks.
Katoa’s warm-up head knock is unlikely to have been caught by the NRL’s monitoring system simply because the host broadcaster rarely films every moment of every team’s warm-up, leaving the responsibility of the individual team’s to monitor their players.
What the NRL want to find out is, what process did the Tongan team follow after Katoa collided with Hopoate in the warm-up?
Within his rights to do so, Tongan coach Kristian Woolf in defending his medical team, said after the match that while Katoa was medically assessed after the Hopoate contact, he didn’t undergo a HIA.
Katoa was cleared for kick-off.
It’s the NRL’s job to determine if more could’ve been done to protect Katoa. On the optics alone, there’s no way Katoa should’ve played after the falling so heavily in the warm-up.
The inquiry is ongoing.
How the NRL view the entirely sad episode will be game-defining.
Originally published as NRL searching for answers around Tongan blind spot as Eli Katoa concussion investigation unfolds
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