The increase of concussions sustained in contact sport has been taken seriously in rugby league, and coaches have made it their mission to lower these statistics to potentially save lives.
A concussion is an injury to the head that can be inflicted when playing heavy contact sports and can result in brain injuries and chronic issues later in life.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that these serious injuries have been particularly common in young men.
To combat the alarming statistics, players are being taught the correct ways to tackle and play.
Under 11s rugby league coach Riley Hodgson said it is crucial to ensure that their younger players are aware of the risk of concussions.
“A possible reason [of the rise] is due to the pace of play,” Mr Hodgson said.
“The game is the quickest it’s ever been… with no stoppages players are more fatigued causing more concussions.”
Junior Rugby Coach Noah Monteleone agreed that new players need extra safety training such as specialised drills.
“So we do extra drills on the side just to ensure that players have the correct tackling technique before getting into games… When all the others are training I pull some of the newer players aside and we do extra tackling by ourselves, where I have the tackle pad on me and we go in slow motion, talk about our head positioning and explain why we put our head to one side and roll the other way,” Mr Monteleone said.
Although there have been developments and changes made to the junior rugby league game in the past ten years, sports related concussion hospitalisations in 2021/22 were most common within the 5-14 and 15-24 age brackets with a combination of 1,151 cases in males.
In coaching the younger generation, Mr Monteleone believes it is important to promote safe contact and protection methods to drop these numbers, such as the use of headgear.
“A lot of players wear headgear now as opposed to when I played,” Mr Monteleone said.
“I think I was one of three who wore headgear in a squad of 20, now in the team I coach a good nine or ten of a squad of 15 wear headgear.”
In regards to rugby league hospitalisations, the head and neck area covers the majority percentage, with 910 cases.
Data Source: Australian Institute of health and welfare.
Feature Image Source: UOWTV Files