NRL 2021: Rugby league legend Chris Anderson to donate brain as Steve Mortimer reveals dementia battle
Bulldogs great Chris Anderson has detailed why he will donate his brain to science as the NRL continues to crackdown on high head hits.
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Chris Anderson has called on NRL players to donate their brains to science after revealing he signed away his own organ in the ultimate commitment to the rugby league concussion cause.
In the wake of Steve Mortimer’s dementia revelation, Anderson revealed that he has committed to donating his brain last year amid concerns that both he and his “Dogs of War” teammates could be suffering from rugby league-caused brain injury.
Offering his support to former teammate Mortimer, the Bulldogs legend also indicated that another three of his former teammates could be suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) before calling on former players to follow the likes of Peter Sterling and James Graham and donate their brains.
“It is a very simple process,” Anderson said.
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“Just a signature. I went along to a lecture at the University of NSW last year and I ended up having a chat with a professor that specialises in CTE. Anyway, he convinced me to donate my brain and I did it on the spot.
“It was as easy as filling in a form.”
Anderson called on past and present players to follow suit with a post-mortem study of the brain the only way to detect CTE.
“Absolutely I would encourage other to do to it,” Anderson said.
“It is a real problem and the only way we can gain any experience is if we do it.”
“We are behind Turvey all the way.
“We are feeling sorry for him but also for the other blokes that have suffered. Guys like Tim Pickup, Bill Noonan and Gary Stevens. We have half a dozen of us that are going through it, at various stages, and I am feeling for them all. We have blokes in nursing homes and it is from head knocks. Definitely. There is certainly a correlation between where they are now and what happened to them on the football field.”
Former Manly enforcer Mark Carroll also supported Anderson’s brain donation call.
“You don’t need your brain when you are dead,” Carroll said.
“It is pretty simple. And this is a big issue. Am I worried? Yes I am. I am actually going for more tests next week.
“While I am worried about myself I am more worried about the guys that played in the era before me. That wasn’t football, that was warfare.
“The thing is concussion stays in your body. It may only be a lovetap but you could be feeling the affects of it years after.”
While Carroll is yet to join the growing list of former players to officially volunteer his brain to science, the NSW hardman indicated he would.
Others to have already committed to the cause included James Graham, and Ian Roberts.
Both Anderson and Carroll supported the NRL’s tough new stance on head knocks and urge current players to consider their long term welfare.
DOGS OF WAR REVEAL THEIR OWN MENTAL BATTLES
Terry Lamb has his moments. Forgetfulness. Stuff like that. So does Chris Anderson.
“I forget things all the time,” Anderson said. “It’s gotten so bad it has become a family joke.”
While Anderson figures he is just getting old and Lamb blames too much booze, both Canterbury legends refuse to rule out the long line of head injuries they sustained while playing for the team known as the “Dogs of War”.
Especially after Steve Mortimer, the leader of their fearsome side, revealed he has been struck down by dementia.
“That could have been anyone of us,” Australian Test great Anderson said.
“It is such a shame that it has happened to ‘Turvey’ but we all put ourselves in a vulnerable position by the way we played the game back in those days.”
In fact, Mortimer, who bravely came forward to suggest repeated head knocks were to blame for his condition (read story below), is not even the first of the “Dogs of War” to suffer what is suspected to be a football-related illness.
“We are behind ‘Turvey’ all the way,” Anderson said.
“We are feeling sorry for him but also for the other blokes that have suffered. Guys like Tim Pickup, Bill Noonan and Garry Stephens.
“We have half a dozen of us that are going through it, at various stages, and I am feeling for them all. We have blokes in nursing homes and it is from head knocks. Definitely.
“There is certainly a correlation between where they are now and what happened to them on the football field.”
Forming a premiership-winning halves combination with Mortimer in the 1980s, Lamb said he will be supporting his former teammate in any way possible.
“I have known about what he is going through for a while,” Lamb said.
“It is sad news but I am here for him now and always. He will go okay. He has a lot of support from both the rugby league community and his family.”
Lamb admitted to suffering from minor memory loss.
“But I put that down to all the piss I have drunk,” Lamb said.
“I try not to think about it too much but I really don’t know that significance of being knocked out a couple of times in my career. I feel okay at the moment, but I look at some of the elderly footballers out there and wonder.
“We lost Barry Nelson and few weeks back and he had some problems.”
Both Lamb and Anderson backed the NRL’s tough stance on high shots and pleaded with current NRL players to accept the new rules.
“I one hundred per cent back what the NRL are doing and I believe it is completely necessary,” Anderson said.
“We have gotten away from good tackling techniques over the last 10 years. We used to hit with bent backs but it is all about standing up straight and holding blokes up now.
“That leads to those mistimed hits across the head. I don’t believe that they are being taught proper tackling technique. We need to hit around the legs and under the ball.
“I can’t rule out having issues because of head knocks but I was only I winger so I won’t complain, but others are certainly doing it tough.
“What they (the NRL) are doing at the moment is aimed to protect the players.”
LEGEND’S WARNING TO PLAYERS
By Paul Crawley
Steve “Turvey” Mortimer hates even saying the word. And you can tell by the tone in his voice that he struggles to go into deep detail about the condition he has been privately and bravely battling for some years now.
But today, the former champion Canterbury halfback and NSW Origin captain has agreed to open up about his secret battle for the first time publicly in hope that it just might knock some common sense into all those people criticising ARLC chairman Peter V’landys for implementing the NRL’s tough new crackdown on illegal high tackles.
“Well, Paul, I have got to tell you it is official that I have dementia,” an emotional Mortimer, 64, said. “In other words, I have lost a bit of my brain.”
Asked how long he had been aware of his condition, Mortimer continued: “Seriously, I was told about March.
“Mate, I think it has a lot to do with … look it doesn’t matter.”
But asked again if it has a lot to do with the knocks he suffered during his playing days, “Turvey” continued: “Absolutely. Absolutely.”
And Mortimer revealed that is why he called V’landys on Monday morning after reading reports that some senior players were leading a revolt against the governing body in protest to how the NRL has implemented this crackdown.
The NRL introduced its hardline stance three rounds ago, leading to a host of players being sent off, sin-binned and suspended.
V’landys is adamant the NRL won’t back down, saying concussion is the “most important issue the game has ever faced’’.
While many fans and stars are unhappy, V’landys has Mortimer’s full support.
“I said, ‘you have just got to forget all these people who are against you’,” Mortimer said of his conversation with V’landys on Monday.
“And these blokes who want to stick it up Peter V’landys or whatever have got no bloody idea.”
Mortimer was reluctant to talk too specifically about how dementia had affected his life but conceded: “I think I might have had it for a number of years but we won’t go into that.
“I had to accept it.”
He said his family, including his footballing brothers Peter, Chris and Glen were all aware of his condition.
Mortimer was one of the most breathtaking and brilliant players of his era in the late 1970s and ‘80s, who was as famous for his chip-and-chase tries as his courageous cover tackles.
In all, he played 272 games for Canterbury as well as nine Test for Australia and 16 matches for NSW, which included captaining the Blues to that historic first-ever State of Origin series victory on that famous rain-soaked night at the SCG in 1985.
The picture of Mortimer being chaired off the ground by his teammates became one of Origin’s most iconic images.
During our conversation “Turvey” loved retelling the stories of his early days when he first arrived at the then Berries from his home town of Wagga Wagga.
Back then, he said, the late great Bobby Fulton was his hero and the tough-as-nails Tommy Raudonikis his greatest tormentor, but also a friend.
“I always got on well with him,” he said of the loveable rogue that was Raudonikis, “but my absolute hero was Bobby Fulton.
“And I used to try and follow him with little chip overs and grubbers through or whatever.”
Asked if he could remember any specific concussions he suffered during his career, he continued: “I remember three key ones.”
MORE MORTIMER
Turvey inducted into NSWRL hall of fame in 2019
Turvey stands down from Bulldogs board in 2019
One involved a play in which Mortimer got his head in the wrong place trying to bring down rampaging Parramatta star Eric Grothe.
That may well have been in the 1984 semi final when “Turvey” produced a memorable cover tackle to knock the blockbusting Eels winger into the corner post to save a certain try.
While there was nothing illegal about it, it was the type of tackle that these days would have resulted in Mortimer leaving the field for a head injury assessment.
But back then they just dusted themselves off and played on to the cheers of the crowd.
Though there was no animosity coming from Mortimer about those tackles or the game in general, because what was most obvious was his love for rugby league is as strong now as it ever was - and that is the only reason why he is talking about his dementia now.
Not to win any sympathy, but just give an understanding of why the game is doing the right thing by trying to limit unnecessary concussion injuries.
A small sacrifice for a long term benefit.
Because “Turvey” wants future generations to enjoy the sport that he has loved his entire life, even though it has ultimately taken a toll on his health.
Asked if he was going okay, he offered: “I believe I am. No one wants me to be a commentator now and that is all.
“I respect that.
“I am fine.
“But I do have part of my brain that has died from playing the game of rugby league.”
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