NRL great sets example for others

NRL great Boyd Cordner’s decision to retire from rugby league this week is a hopeful sign that the message about the risk of long-term brain damage is finally getting through to the people who need to hear it most: the players.

Cordner, one of our most decorated rugby league footballers who has captained Australia, New South Wales and his Sydney Roosters team, quit the sport at the age of 29, still in his prime and with two years left on his club contract.

He said he could no longer accept the risk that all the big hits that made his head spin on the field might cause premature dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a specific degenerative brain disease known as CTE, which can only be diagnosed years later via autopsy.

‘‘What does the next head knock mean? . . . I couldn’t get that out of my head,’’ Cordner said.

Because it can take a decade for symptoms to emerge, too many players still think that they are immune. A recent study based on an anonymous survey in the British Journal of Sports Medicine by respected Sydney-based sports doctor Tom Longworth found that 22 per cent of NRL players confessed to not reporting at least one likely concussion during either the 2018 or 2019 season.

That is why it is important that Cordner has listened to the science and made the link.