Mick McGuane looks at how the attitudes towards concussion have changed and its impact at the local level

Concussion issues aren’t just a concern for AFL players. They’re an issue at every level of footy. And few people understand that better than Collingwood premiership player and local coach Mick McGuane.

It was an era of tough guys and tough hits on the footy field.

When you got knocked down, you got back up again.

Before there were zones and a forward press, I came through a rough and tumble time on the football field when the knocks came as thick and fast as the pies and beer in the stands.

Fortunately, I’ve come through it with no ill-effects. I suffered a few concussions during my career, but, touch wood, nothing is wrong.

There are no issues with my memory or retaining information and I can clearly remember instances from most games I played and pivotal moments from those matches.

I played with and against a lot of courageous footballers, Tony Shaw as captain and Gavin Brown, who eventually became captain, were two that were as tough as they come.

They were among many players that experienced heavy head knocks at various stages of their footy life when I played with them.

But based on their positions they hold in their current life, Brown as head of player development at North Melbourne and Shaw as a football commentator, they have come through football’s greatest hits to work in high-functioning roles.

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Paddy McCartin dealt with concussion injuries throughout his career. Picture: Getty Images

Brown, famously, was knocked out in the 1990 Grand Final. I remember leaning over him at quarter-time and he clearly wasn’t with us. As I walked across to the huddle, I was thinking we were one star player down for the rest of the game.

But the decision they made back then, whether it was right or wrong, Gav came back on to grace the field and clearly gave his teammates a lift.

The stringent rules that are in place now compared to back then are a good thing based on what we’re starting to learn from the American NFL landscape, a few rugby league examples and now Polly Farmer’s news.

The AFL can have the right protocols in place because they have got the right people to enforce these protocols – a qualified doctor who can clinically assess a player after a traumatic hit that can lead to concussion.

At local level, we can have the same hits, but most can’t afford a doctor to be present on match day.

When you’ve got a club as big as what we have, the Keilor Football Club with 30 teams – boys, girls, men and women playing Friday night, all day Saturday and all day Sunday, you can’t have a doctor at every game as it becomes a burden of cost.

Indirectly, we are putting our players in the hands of a head trainer, who has probably only got a first-aid ticket, to make clinical assessments.

We had a scary experience with our junior and former St Kilda rookie Nick O’Kearney when he came back to play with us in 2018. It was Round 14 against Glenroy and, in a totally innocuous incident, O’Kearney got knocked out and came off with the trainers.

In O’Kearney’s situation, he knew he was done. But being the competitor he is and his love for the game, if he had come through a little better, he might have put his hand up to say, ‘I’m right to go back on’.

Being a respected player who had been in AFL system, the head trainer might bow to that request.

Luckily in this case, everyone decided not to put him back on and we made the right call. Later that afternoon, he was taken to hospital to be assessed for concussion. It was only when the adrenaline wore off O’Kearney realised his neck was sore. They found out he had a fracture of the vertebrae.

Ben Brown after suffering a concussion in 2017. Picture: AAP Images

Just imagine this. If he was willing and able to go back on and we allowed it to happen, who’s to say that we wouldn’t be talking about a young man in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

That’s a really strong message about what local football coaches and head trainers are dealing with. Without doctors to make judgment calls on concussion, a disaster like this could be in waiting.

Thank God we have moved on from my father’s era.

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My dad was the captain-coach of Sebastopol in a grand final in 1975. I remember when one of my local heroes got seriously concussed. Back then, dad as coach had to make the call to leave him on the ground as it was the days of the 19th and 20th man.

Back in those days it wasn’t how you got knocked down, it was about how you got back up. That was a badge of honour. It was a brutal match to watch and what footy was like back then. There were physical spot fires everywhere.

Currently, in the AFL all clubs have to sign off on every box before a player gets back on. Times have changed and definitely for the better.

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Originally published as Mick McGuane looks at how the attitudes towards concussion have changed and its impact at the local level