A Duty Of Care

Duty of care: A moral or legal obligation to ensure the safety or well-being of others.

RL has to provide that. It cannot stop over aggressive behaviour taking place but it can and must act decisively against it. The brain for example is a very important, but also fragile, part of our body. It was never designed to take the impacts contact sport delivers.

I was watching the highlights of a RL game in the NRL today and several incidents stood out. One defensive player was flattened when he got his head in a poor position, but the ball carrier didn't help matters by driving his hip against the defender's head. Player taken off and took no further part. It happens but brain injury material.

A little later a player is hit hard from behind after passing the ball. No injury but that sort of hit creates a whiplash effect. It's unnecessary as the tackler would have known from the body language of the other player he was too late to stop the pass. The same thing happened again, only this time the intent and impact was much harder and the defender stayed down. A penalty ensued and the incident put on report.

Then a player leads into a tackle with his head rammed into someone's face without arms being used and then two swinging arms followed. They didn't connect as the victim had been poleaxed already. The action wasn't a head clash but using the head as a missile. This led to the aggressive player being sent from the field. It also contributed to his side losing in the dying minutes of the game.

The player concerned is one of the dirtiest players around, trying to play the tough guy. He showed no remorse after the impact and seeing a player lying prone. His coach - who's team is a disgrace - felt no action should have been taken on the field at all. Outrageous.

Sadly the NRL has decided no further action will be taken retrospectively. What kind of message is that sending out? If I want to watch thuggish violence, I'll watch cage boxing or the like. For RL I want to see skill. Sure, it's an impact game and as player in my youth I didn't flinch at tough, fair play. However, not the sort of play when a man thinks he's the 'big man' if he injures others.

These impacts I've highlighted above all affected the brain of the hit player in some way. It's a precious organ and repeated damage to it will have an effect at sometime, probably after retiring. Is the NRL doing enough to protect the innocent from the testosterone fueled he-man who wants to play the tough guy, seeking to intimidate and hurt others?

In the future at some time, lawyers will form some sort of class action suit and use footage of the above game (and many others) to show that dangerous play was going on. Then the leniency shown by the judiciary will also be exposed. Brain damage is permanent as it results in cells being killed. That cannot be fixed by court action but the heafty payout the victims deserve will come back to bite the NRL. They have a duty of care but failing in this regard will be a costly exercise somewhere down the line.