Bravery of NRL legends’ advocacy for players with brain injuries

They are the rugby league warriors and their families who are bravely pushing NRL powerbrokers to make the game safer.

Mark Carroll. Picture: John Feder

Rugby league champions Robbie O’Davis and Mark Carroll were two of the toughest players of their generation but now they are in a fight they never asked for.

Last year, both stars spoke bravely about their diagnosis of “probable CTE” – chronic traumatic encephalopathy – which has been linked to the repetitive head knocks they suffered during their brutal rugby league careers.

Their courage to speak candidly about their struggles because of the brain injuries, and their push for the NRL and other football codes to make their games safer, has seen them earn a nomination for The Australian’s Australian Of The Year.

“The reality is blokes (who have CTE) are taking their own lives,” Carroll told The Australian last year. “I am telling the story of my CTE diagnosis, not for sympathy, not for myself, but for the other former footballers, who I know are suffering in ­silence. I want them to get help.”

Former rugby league footballers Paul Green, Josh White and Steve Folkes were all found to have CTE post-mortem.

Carroll, who had more than 50 concussions in first grade, said the “silent suffering has to stop” and called for brain scans to be provided to all former footballers by the NRL.

He implored NRL bosses Peter V’landys and Andrew Abdo to make it happen; “I think the NRL – who made a $63m profit last year – should be providing MRI/PET scans.”

In the end Carroll, alongside former NRL great James Graham, who hosted The Australian’s Head Noise podcast, was successful in having the NRL establish a proposal for a “brain, body and mind check-up”.

O’Davis, who was part of an amazing and stoic group of footballers who lifted Newcastle out of the doldrums after the 1989 earthquake and the shock closure of the BHP steelworks 10 years later, helped the Knights bring home two premierships. He also continues to plead for more help from the NRL for those suffering.

Also to be commended are the families of rugby league footballers – including those currently supporting their husbands through their dementia battles; Louise O’Davis, Sandra Crow and Sheree Miller. The women bravely spoke of their pain in watching their husbands’ declines and called for the NRL to do more.

Canterbury great Steve Mortimer’s family, led by his wife Karen, also appealed for the NRL to listen to leading experts such as the Australian Sports Brain Bank’s Michael Buckland, a neuropathologist who found CTE in the brains of AFL players including Danny Frawley and league great and Cowboys’ coach Paul Green.

“I want them to listen to the people who know what they’re talking about; don’t listen to the people that are trying to put a veil over the problem or trying to lessen the problem altogether,” Mrs Mortimer said.

“This is an issue for all contact sports, including rugby and AFL. We can’t pretend anymore that it isn’t. We’ve got to get our head out of the sand. Take care of your players, check in on the families – not just during the good times, but when the times get tough.

“These players have given a lot to the game and there is more to be done there in supporting families in tough times.”

Mrs Mortimer said her husband – who is suffering early onset dementia – was paying a cruel price for a wonderful career. “This disease is a thief,” she said.

We encourage our readers to put in a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, which was first won in 1971 by economist HC “Nugget” Coombs. Prominent Australians can be nominated by filling out the form above, or sending an email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Friday, January 19.