https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/59045827 10 former players. Including Bobby goulding are suing the RFL for Brain damage. The lack of medical help they recieved and now have CTE. This follows other sports. Including rugby union. American football and professional wrestling in this lawsuit being made against a governing body. Sport or promotion. Personal view. They get paid the big bucks. And much like the NFL or wwe. They knew what they were doing when they went in head first. They knew what the repercussions were if they got it wrong. and this I feel will futher water down the sport we all know and love. And another nail into the coffin for a sport that's already dying on its with how it's being run at the moment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/59045827 10 former players. Including Bobby goulding are suing the RFL for Brain damage. The lack of medical help they recieved and now have CTE. This follows other sports. Including rugby union. American football and professional wrestling in this lawsuit being made against a governing body. Sport or promotion. Personal view. They get paid the big bucks. And much like the NFL or wwe. They knew what they were doing when they went in head first. They knew what the repercussions were if they got it wrong. and this I feel will futher water down the sport we all know and love. And another nail into the coffin for a sport that's already dying on its with how it's being run at the moment.

Personal view - not many players in the 80s & 90s were getting paid 'big bucks', but neither was there conclusive medical evidence at that time to link collision effects and brain injury.

I'll add. There was not known the risks of head injuries as much as we know now. Cte was not even a known thing until 2015. Surely what we know now has been taken into account. We have the HIA protocol in place as it stands now. Which has come along way in the last 6 years.

But surely it is a slippery path to a final nail in the coffin for rugby league as we know it. And if it gets watered down any more. To a casual viewer. That's the death of rugby league.
Take a boxing match. You watch the fights for the technical prowess and knock outs. Same with the UFC. You watch it because of the physical nature of the sport. The same is said for rugby league. Seeing the spectacular tackles. The spectacular hits and action that it should give as a result.
It's a slippery slope when former players can sue the league 15/20/25 years after they retired due to something that was unknown at the time. And if was known. Better provisions would of been put into place at the time for the players to protect them.

This is such a slippery slope that could kill sport as we know it. The RFL has no money to pay for this. How far do you go?

I agree, if the RFL has gone off best possible advice at the time then it could be a smallish payout but then more will crawl out of the woodwork. I absolutely don't want to see former players suffering though.

I think at the very least the sport needs to take this very seriously for current players. Changing rules to only 1 prop on the bench and they all have to play at least 50 minutes will mean more Chris Hills and Mike Coopers and less sitas. Reducing substitutions would be good too for lowering overall impact. We have seen more straight yellows for head high shots but maybe they should be straight red and then subject to review? Certain circumstances could be reduced to yellow? I don't want to see the game too sanitised but it would be good to see more backs on the bench and an emphasis on
Skills, attack and creativity rather than a physical arm wrestle with a bench which only extends the arm wrestle further.

Maybe this is an opportunity to make the game more entertaining. There will need to be protocol changes above and beyond what we have now IMO.

SHOULD one of these cases be successful, I think the game is well and truly ****ed.

Player's bravery isn't under question, but what I ask is this...

Man plays professional sport, where contact with the head is inevitable. Repeated contact to the head makes the risk of damage to the brain, again, inevitable. We've all seen boxers physical and mental capacities deteriorate over the years. At what point do rugby (league or union) players think that it's NOT going to happen to them? It (unfortunately) is an occupational hazard.
If Bobbie Goulding is told to "get his ar5e back on the pitch" after a huge whack to the head, who is he going to sue?
His coach (who told him to "get his ar5e.....)?
The physio who ran on to the pitch to tend to him, and decided that he was fit to continue ?
His club?
The bloke who *****ed him in the first place (how do you prove which incidents caused this)?


It's a minefield.

Wishing good health to any player who is suffering this .

There is a school of thought in RU, where they want TACTICAL substitutions banning, to reduce the chance a fresh, 18 stone huge bloke running ( at say, 15 mph) into a tiring player who's been on for 60odd minutes.
Maybe it's something that MAY happen, to lessen impact injuries

The thing is no one will go and watch a touch rugby match.
Rugby is fun for speccies & players ... cos the game is tough.
I played school rugby (years ago) with a Centre who used to always seem to be getting a bang on the head. If he gets dementia can he sue the RFU, the school or the PE College he went to or blame his parents for letting him play. He did play rugby league as well.
Hindsight rears it's head once more.

I agree this case, if successful, will be huge hammerblow to the game as we know it, both on the pitch as we view matches and financially to the whole structure of the sport.

However, just as a personal observation, is anyone else now as uncomfortable viewing the opening seconds of the Andrew Johns' Leeds debut from 2005, when Rob Burrow takes a mighty headshot from the kick off, now knowing the medical condition the fellow is now in, as I am?

Not stating that individual moment was the only reason for his condition of course, but Rob was almost renowned for taking head shots like that throughout his career - the accumulation of those tackles must have had some affect and I wonder how closely monitored he was throughout his long career to how much damage he was suffering?

The game has changed from part-time players, training occasionally with weights made from a scaffold pole in two concrete filled paint pots and running a few laps of the pitch, to full time players with nutrition plans and stats based training programmes. Forwards have gone from big plodders to muscle bound athletes, and wingers from wiry racing snakes to powerhouses (no disrespect to those players of the eras that fall outside the stereotype). The magic sponge has been replaced by doctors and full time physios, and player welfare come to the forefront.

We can't change what's happened to past-players, but we can by sympathetic to their needs and ailments, and trust that recent measures (and adaptations forthwith) give us a safe and sustainable sport.

I can see head protection like Hilly used to wear being compulsory soon. As for the payouts, Warren Stevens must be due a 7 figure sum.

Unfortunately 'scrum caps' don't prevent the brain hitting the inside of the skull, which seems to be the issue.

My thoughts exactly Smiffy, but also can't ignore them either. So it's a dodgy situation.

Are Frank Warren or Eddie Hearn on the hook for the same in pro boxing? What about MME?

Pretty sure some forms of CTE were known from boxing in the 50s, and they started looking at it in the early 00s off the back of nfl players.

Will smiths movie came out in 2015 though

Pretty sure it's being mentioned in soccer too regards heading the ball.

It's all tinged with sadness because there's blokes and families out there who have early onset dementia in their 50's.

It's not as though you can argue that you didn't know rugby was a contact sport before embarking on a career though and the RFL can demonstrate in recent years it's making changes and progress on head injuries.

Exactly. Maybe it's just a very sad and unfortunate outcome and nobody is to blame for any failure of duty of care as the link has only been established after the event.

I think one immediate and reasonable change would be to have HIA’s conducted by an independent body. At the minute, club doctors conduct pre-season baseline assessments and the in-match assessments. While I’m not questioning their integrity, they are on the payroll of the organisation who need their “assets” on the pitch.

If the RFL conducted/appointed independent specialist doctors to conduct ALL of the HIA assessments, both pre-season, sporadic review in season and for in game knocks, they could ensure true independence to the tests. Which, if nothing else, would be a mitigation further down the line for future cases.

What about you...?



I agree though. Kneeling over somebody stricken landing bare fist punches. Some sport that.

Sounds made for Ben Flower.....

As for MME, personally I find it a little barbaric, appealing to something quite base in human nature. Like stopping to look at car crashes. I cannot believe repeated punches and kicks to the head has no risk of brain damage so will MME be faced with law suits ?

I guess a difference maybe that RL players are employees but if that was the case the action would be against their former employers. In that case they would have to take action against each club in the hope one sticks but the the burden of proof would be which club failed in it's duty of care.

It's not necessarily the case. Take pro wrestling over 50 wrestlers from a few eras of wrestling unsuccessfully fuked a lawsuit against the WWE. Quiet a few of the former wrestlers have never even been under contract to wwe. But some of them wcw. Which they filed against wwe as they bought wcw in 2001. The wrestlers are classed as independent contractors. But still filed against wwe. This was eventually dismissed by the American courts.

Since you say 'bare fisted' clearly you don't watch mma.

Come on cat, they are hardly boxing gloves are they?

No i don't watch it. I could get it for free if i stand at the top of King Street of a weekend. I don't see the attraction. Until recently i was on Facebook and used to see posts like 'MMA training tonight' Seems everyone in the world is an MMA fighter but me. I'd better stay indoors

Quote ="Fantastic Mr Cat"Since you say 'bare fisted' clearly you don't watch mma.'" Maybe he was watching this when he formed his opinion. Article states MMA and it looks bare fisted to me. [size=150[iBare fist fighting in Mixed Martial Arts makes history in Cheyenne[/i[/size https://www.wyomingnewsnow.tv/2020/08/1 ... -cheyenne/

Quote ="Fantastic Mr Cat"Since you say 'bare fisted' clearly you don't watch mma.'" Maybe he was watching this when he formed his opinion. Article states MMA and it looks bare fisted to me. [size=150[iBare fist fighting in Mixed Martial Arts makes history in Cheyenne[/i[/size https://www.wyomingnewsnow.tv/2020/08/1 ... -cheyenne/