{"id":429113,"date":"2026-01-22T03:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429113\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T03:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:35:07","slug":"nrl-concussion-blind-spot-damning-rlpa-report-highlights-ongoing-pressure-to-perform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429113\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL concussion blind spot: damning RLPA report highlights ongoing \u2018pressure to perform\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Rugby League Players Association (RLPA) has released the results from its annual <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rlpa.com.au\/news\/top-four-clubs-to-play-for-revealed-in-2025-players-pulse\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Players\u2019 Pulse<\/a> survey, capturing the views and experiences of more than 800 NRL and NRLW players during the 2025 season on a wide range of game-related topics.<\/p>\n<p>Amongst many eye-opening findings, concussions suffered at training were identified as a continuing blind spot in rugby league.<\/p>\n<p>Concerningly, both men\u2019s and women\u2019s players suggested the issue is only increasing as more players suffering suspected concussions were continuing to train with their teammates without receiving the necessary medical clearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the specific results, 60 percent cent of NRL players who had suffered a suspected concussion said they had continued to train\u2014an alarming 24% increase on 2024.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a data-testid=\"card--article-thumbnail\" role=\"article\" target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/angus-crichton-signs-rugby-australia-2027-world-cup-roosters\/1ee596fc7ed019e8f3cf7253\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Angus Crichton signs with Rugby Australia ahead of 2027 World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Even worse, 38 percent cent of those players said they had felt external pressure to continue to train despite having concussion symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>According to the RLPA report, concussion awareness is no longer the problem in rugby league but rather ensuring players, officials and clubs take decisive action when it happens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe challenge now lies not in knowing (about concussions), but in acting,\u201d the report states.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParticularly in environments where the pressure to perform, compete, and \u2018push through\u2019 is deeply embedded in team culture, often created and managed by people outside of the playing group.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Top NRL workplaces revealed<\/p>\n<p>For the first time, the 2025 Player Pulse survey also revealed the top four\u00a0workplaces\u2014aka clubs\u2014for players in both the NRL and NRLW competitions as rated by their own players.<\/p>\n<p>Top four workplaces for NRL players:Penrith Panthers\u00a0Parramatta Eels\u00a0Melbourne Storm\u00a0Canterbury Bulldogs\u00a0Top four workplaces for NRLW players:Sydney Roosters\u00a0Parramatta Eels\u00a0Gold Coast Titans\u00a0Brisbane Broncos<\/p>\n<p>Details of the lower ranked NRL and NRLW clubs were not publicly released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rugby League Players Association (RLPA) has released the results from its annual The Players\u2019 Pulse survey, capturing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-429113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}