Dear Editor,
Much ado about the possible consequence of receiving too many head knocks playing Australian rules football. One does not have to be a medical specialist to accept that the head knocks present danger that are often not noticed until after a player has been retired from the game for several years. As an ex administrator of the game I cannot understand why it has taken so long for this to be addressed. Thirty eight years ago I became the chairman of the Mooroopna Schools Football Club along with a new committee. As newcomers we took the challenge of helmets for our players, not just for safety but to ensure they went on with their football career by not being frightened. A heavy knock to a young player can be devastating. We decided that our under 13s and under 14s would not be allowed to play without a helmet. Our under 16s would wait until the under aged players were ready to play under 16s and already comfortable with the helmet. Funding? We decided that we would not adopt the begging method but opted to get off our backsides and earn our money. This resulted in an orchardist donating a bin of apples which we sold door to door in Mooroopna. We also garnered some ‘foreign’ money by conducting a one day ‘collectors’ fair in Wodonga that netted us a serious amount of money. We were pleased that the two teams adjusted to helmet wearing without any major problems. This was the price to be paid for our success and that was the subsequent overthrow of our committee followed by the dropping of the helmet policy. I am certain that if this policy had remained other junior clubs would have followed and who knows where this would have gone.
Yours sincerely
Bill Brown
Shepparton
