Leading experts are sounding the alarm over possible catastrophic head trauma

Leading experts are sounding the alarm over possible catastrophic head trauma that may be caused by training for contact sports with a major push for changes.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
At thousands of grounds across the country, week in, week out,
the crush and collision of a generation of young Australians
preparing for game day. But now even training sessions face
a grim new warning. There is going to be a
tsunami of CTE in the near future. CTE diagnosed in

(00:28):
a galaxy of our footy stars, the catastrophic incurable dementia
from repeated head knocks and concussions. It looks like this.
This is former Newcastle player administrator Trevor Crowe, a thirty
year career now nonverbal, bedridden, even unable to recognize his wife. Oh, Chris.

(00:50):
It's a hell on earth. It's immensely stressful. We need
to get on top of it now for the player's sake.
Doctor Rowana Mobs, one of the nation's leading experts. It's
now pushing for an urgent, radical overhaul of midweek training.
If we have contact collision training, we may have CTU
reduce the contact, possibly even ban tackles for under twelves

(01:12):
and over thirties. It's about brain safety. Here at the
Bankstown Bulls where Super Bowl whener Jordan Malata was a junior,
they teach safe tackling come into contact one two and
argue cutting back could be dangerous. I think you'll probably
open it up to more risk in that sense, I
think we should be welcoming contact that training. The NRL

(01:33):
agrees limiting contact training could be detrimental to safe tackling techniques.
They insist elite training is videoed and monitored, while the
AFL says it's collecting training data for review. All aware
litigation is already looming. The problems not just restricted to Australia,
of course. In the UK right now, eleven hundred former

(01:54):
league and union players have formed a class action against
their codes, and in Victoria one hundred AFL players are
doing the same. The problem has been compared with the
James Hardy Asbesto scandal. League's players have been pushing for
standardization of tackle training time limits, confident and announcement is
due soon. Oh, there will be changes. These will be

(02:16):
put in place in the preseason for twenty five twenty six.
The NRL have given us the commitment for that. Advocates supportive.
There's no question it has to be reduced. She says.
CT is the only thing worth tackling. Head of Chris
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