Ah yes, the lawyers going on about the reasonable foreseeability of brain damageā¦ How about the reasonable foreseeability of serous injury or death when you invite a sixteen year old up to your hotel room to try heroin with you?
My concern is that the brain is the one part of the body that the medical profession has yet to fully explore or understand - For these kind of ailments there are three primary reasons - blows to the head, lifestyle issues and genetics - What I found difficult is how how do you measure how much each of these three issues contribute to brain injuries - This is a vexing issue.
This opens up a hole can of worms across all minor leagues as well.
Unfortunately people are suffering, but these law suites are going to have dire consequences on the game. Itās already started with tackles like Merrettās being reportable.
If the AFL loses this case, I canāt see how contact sports can continue!
This was inevitable once the storm with the AFLs concussion expert blew up. It will all be settled out of court, or the payouts will be less than those involved think. The big change will be waivers and a big fund to look after player after their career.
If military vets have limited cases on mTBI from blast wave concussions they receive in training that was know well before they did anything then I cant see this being massive. But will hopefully case some massive changes in the way the AFL treat players post career.
Was having a discussion with a mate about this and he thinks the next step will be players suing each other, not necessarily the clubs or the AFL, for specific incidents. Say for instance if that Murphy bloke from Collingwood has repeated concussion symptoms and canāt ever get back to play (as unlikely as that would be but hypothetically speaking) after that incident with Caminiti, that he might sue Caminiti for damages including loss of income, etc for the effects of the hit. I recall Terry Wallace sued Rodney Grinter back in the late-80s for a very sickening clash between the two.
Unless youāre talking about the top 10% of players who have instigated, the pay day from going after a bloke like Caminitti pales in comparison to going after the AFL or clubs. I doubt this will happen very often
The liability would only extend insofar as the contact going outside the standard rules of play - so yeah the Caminiti thing could possibly fly because he clocked him. But in terms of loss of earnings from someone receiving a concussion in the normal play of the game, there is zero chance that would go any further
But in reality it wouldnt make sense to sue anyone except for the AFL, because they have far, far deeper pockets
I never knew that about Grinter being sued, l am glad that Wallace did so, if that is the case. The incident in question is one of the most gutless acts l have ever seen on a football field. Wallace was a ball player, he never played the man or went the knuckle even though the Dawks of that era had plenty who did. Grinter was a sniper and a thug. As l recall Wallace had collected a ball and was just about to break out of a pack when Grinter came in from the blind side with a coat hangee and broke his jaw, maybe in more than one place. A bit more force might and Grinter might have killed Wallace by driving his jaw back into the brain. Grinter was a nasty piece of work.
Even now, after all this time it is sickening to watch. I am glad that such thuggery has been taken out of the game.
Iām not so sure. In general, I expect players to focus their legal efforts on the AFL for several reasons, one of which is because thatās where the money is. No point suing some bloke who gave you a high hip and shoulder 20 years ago but not played 30 games and is now a brickieās laborer who puts all his earnings into the pokies. Canāt get blood from a stone.
But also, a lot of the recent research into long term concussion effects is pointing at the danger of repeated concussions, or repeated sub concussion head impacts. That makes it hard to single out an individual or a single hit and prove it caused the damage youāre suing over.
Alisha Horan was 20 years old , tragic happening.
Not sticking up for him, but perhaps the brain damage may be why he couldnāt/didnāt see what could and did happen.
Should make for an interesting court case. The cross examination of his past should be interesting. With the amount of drugs he has probably taken in his life, how can he be sure it was the concussions that caused him issues
Lol yeah no.
Pretty sure he blamed the devil for that.
Wallace had some expensive and ongoing dental bills after that and felt he shouldnāt have to pay for them. I think Grinter felt aggrieved and believed what happens on the field stays on the field. Pretty sure Wallace played the next week. Not downplaying the incident at all, he was a tough bugger.
do enough coke, get hit in the head enough, no crime is your fault.
Grinter should have had his playing licence revoked by the AFL like they did to Lethal. Grinter was a card carrying member of the thug mug hall of fame.
He cleaned himself up late in his career. He could play, didnāt need to belt blokes like he did.
Not guilty due to mental impairment. Terminology that is farking insulting to victims.