1 hour ago, sisso said:

You might be on to something....I have a bad neck from an old injury and now its so sensitive to any contact to my head or anything around here (eg my five yo launching herself off the couch onto me).....touch it wrong and I get referred nerve pain, sickness, double vision etc for days

Certainly something you should investigate. And any footballer gets a lot rougher treatment  than dished out by your little daughter.

I just wonder. Though eack knock is given its time for recovery it seems like hes not out playing footy again for 5 mins before incurring another concussion.

 This seems to me to beyond the stretches of aberration to any norm of probability of a player experiencing such injury.

52 minutes ago, america de cali said:

Certainly something you should investigate. And any footballer gets a lot rougher treatment  than dished out by your little daughter.

She is a brute! But yeah neck problems are no joke shows how tough Jones is when he played a season with a busted neck...

18 hours ago, Males said:

The kid is certainly unlucky, Selwood ducks so much that he basically gets his head split open every game, but is fine to play each week. 

That's cause Selwood doesn't have anything between the ears Males!

I wouldn't play Brayshaw again this year. If Brayshaw does continue then he needs to think of what is the safest way forward (for his career). Now he has copped a few too many head knocks, he is going to have to change his game. I have seen people talk about wearing helmets, etc. But that doesn't achieve much. It can often just give a false sense of security. Brayshaw doesn't need to believe he can wear a helmet, and continue to play his own game, and that everything will be ok - it won't. If Brayshaw does decide to continue an AFL career then he is going to have to completely change the way he plays the game. My suggestion would be to model his game along the lines of Sam Mitchell, with the goal of broadening his vision, slowing down leading into contests (it will naturally broaden his vision and lessen any incoming contact), precision kicking off both feet, etc. Gus has the rest of the year to now study tapes and work on reshaping his game.

Edited May 15, 20178 yr by KingDingAling

agree. He needs a physical and mental break. Gus is 21. He should get physically fit (triathlons and or gym work to be bigger and stronger). 

I wouldn't dismiss the helmet option. It DOES protect the head. 

The bottom line though is Angus' life and his future

Another concussion from a relatively innocuous incidental contact.

His career has to be in doubt which must be difficult to process and deal with.

 

 

 

If he can get a decent run of not being smashed in the head he'll probably be ok

So they're giving him at least a week off, apparently?

 

10 minutes ago, sisso said:

If he can get a decent run of not being smashed in the head he'll probably be ok

Unfortunately he seems incapable of this. I'm not having a go at him per se it just seems concussion is his shadow the poor sod.

I have no idea what the answer is.

Someone mentioned the Halo band.

Has any player had such ill fortune ?

I really have to wonder if footy is for him. Hate to see him leave the Dees, hate even more to see him injured beyond recovery.

What a bugger of a quandary.

7 hours ago, america de cali said:

Still think that weird neck injury he sustained may be the root cause of his concussion problems. Googling neck injuries and concussion brings up a lot of converging info. He could have suffered permanent damage with that injury. He was a gun in the making before then and lost it since.

I have said it before and will say it again.

An expert opinion is needed: too much inexpert speculation on this site.

The opinion of former board member, eminent neurosurgeon Dr Peter Dohrmann, a former regular contributor to this site, would be most interesting. 

Gus interview  http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2017-05-16/player-update-angus-brayshaw

3 hours ago, Petraccattack said:

Gus interview  http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2017-05-16/player-update-angus-brayshaw

Such a good kid. Has such a positive outlook on the situation. We will see him back sooner rather than later. 

Edited May 16, 20178 yr by bandicoot

I cant believe young Angus is continuing to not wear a helmet in the heat of battle, when is this gonna change? If this continues to happen the club and AFL are to blame should be made compulsory after two head knocks.

Your Thoughts?

Not sure how many times it needs to be mentioned, helmets don't stop your brain rattling inside your skull.

Therefore, helmets do nothing for concussion and can actually be worse.

The only reason a helmet could have ANY merit is if it provided the player confidence, i.e. a mental edge.  

Nathan Burke, Gary Wilson and others have worn them, so he wouldn't be the first.  But other than confidence, which he may need, there's no reason to wear one.

40 minutes ago, ProDee said:

The only reason a helmet could have ANY merit is if it provided the player confidence, i.e. a mental edge.  

Nathan Burke, Gary Wilson and others have worn them, so he wouldn't be the first.  But other than confidence, which he may need, there's no reason to wear one.

Interesting point.

There's also been some talk of helmets having a negative outcome. That is, they give the wearer a false sense of security and as a result, they go in harder.

This link is about junior football and helmet wearing, but I understand the same principle applies further up the year levels. 

To helmet or not to helmet

"It suggests helmets may give a false sense of security: ''Players who mistakenly wear headgear because they think they are protected may place themselves at increased risk of injury.''

Similar theories have been applied to the value of cycling helmets, that people not wearing helmets might be more cautious. Differs from a contact sport, of course.

Edited May 17, 20178 yr by Moonshadow

40 minutes ago, ProDee said:

The only reason a helmet could have ANY merit is if it provided the player confidence, i.e. a mental edge.  

Nathan Burke, Gary Wilson and others have worn them, so he wouldn't be the first.  But other than confidence, which he may need, there's no reason to wear one.

Maybe he should wear a red cape then. 

 

 

Edited May 17, 20178 yr by DominatrixTyson

Just now, DominatrixTyson said:

Maybe he should wear a red cape then.

 

 

Email the club.

Are there any medical folk out there who whether the damage can be seen on the MRI or otherwise?

2 hours ago, steve_f said:

Are there any medical folk out there who whether the damage can be seen on the MRI or otherwise?

With Gus's history I'm sure he's having regular scans. I just had a watch of the interview, he's an impressive young man and I can tell he's really frustrated by this reoccurrence. While a lot of fans on this forum seem to be already putting the pencil through him he seems to be looking far away from that thought.

All we can do is trust that the club doctors and all the experts will have Gus's best interests at heart and proceed from there. As he said, first step let's get him through the short term concussion symptoms and then figure out strategies to prevent/manage them in the future. 

A lot of UFC fighters are now taking longer and longer layoffs after being knocked out, with some citing that coming back too soon they find themselves more susceptible to being knocked out again.

As much as I dont like it for his development, maybe Gus would see some benefit to hanging up the boots for the year and just sticking to training.

The team is travelling along quite well at the moment without Gus. Would the team benefit from having a perfectly fit and functioning Angus Brayshaw available right now? You bet!

However it would be best for Gus and for the club to have him return in tip top condition either later this year or at the start of 2018. Viney, Petracca, Oliver, Jones, Salem, Vince, Hunt, Lewis and others are carrying the load just now, and with Gawn to return (we are told) sooner than expected the team is travelling along quite well.

Interesting to speculate, if this was the Melbourne team of 5 or 6 years ago people would have been screaming for Gus to get back out on the field ASAP. Times and personnel have certainly changed.

Edited May 18, 20178 yr by Dee Dee

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Nev Jetta have several significant concussions early in his career, and didn't he miss quite a bit of footy a few years back?  Well managed by the club  

If so, he has made a pretty decent recovery into some top form, so maybe all the doom and gloom here is premature at least.