Long live Aussie Rules: contact sport is dead.

Buried in the NAB pre-season hoopla was mention of (another) Jimmy Bartel concussion. No wonder, the stakeholders of our great competition now rely ever more on the massive media dollars holding  our pig skin up above the brawling, baying pack And that's only the spectators. What I want to know is, will Jimmy be offering his brain to medical science this season, post-season or someway into the future. Secondly, does the AFL have a brain, or at least a conscience? Somehow along the way, commentators - not to mention self-published internet authors - became obsessed with football as 'head over the ball football', with the disclaimer that any blunt trauma suffered could see a player 'base-lined', or as post-fact precaution, cotton-woolled from competition before leading their heads again into battle. Time for football as a true sport to assert itself. Get rid of the casual elbow,   get rid of the head collisions and get rid of these manly discussions which uphold the more violent aspects of our great game. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2016/03/15/nfl-stands-by-safety-officials-acknowledgement-of-cte-link-to-football/

http://www.news.com.au/sport/breaking-news/benn-robinson-reveals-shocking-xray-of-broken-nose/news-story/78e84b024b30573d28062122dc067172#itm=newscomau%7Csport%7Cnca-sport-plmnt-trending%7C1%7Csection-sport%7Cindex%7Cnrl&itmt=1458233900398