{"id":459036,"date":"2026-02-05T01:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459036\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T01:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:30:09","slug":"christian-welch-advocates-for-new-headgear-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459036\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Welch advocates for new headgear – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired Melbourne Storm<\/a> star Christian Welch<\/a> has given his say on the newly-studied concussion headgear that Manly Sea Eagles<\/a> forward Jake Trbojevic<\/a> will wear in the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Welch suffered eight concussions in his NRL<\/a> career and is open to the idea of players trying the unique equipment in a bid to make the game safer.<\/p>\n

It will see Sea Eagles fan-favourite Trbojeivc using the headgear for the first time in an attempt to prolong his NRL<\/a> career.<\/p>\n

The State of Origin<\/a> representative is an advocate for the headgear brand and is hopeful it benefits players who are susceptible to brain-related injuries in contact sports.<\/p>\n

This year, we will see Trbojevic wear ‘GameGear<\/a>‘ apparel, designed to prevent concussions and other brain-related injuries that occur during the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having suffered some frightening concussions mid-game last year, Trbojevic is willing to do anything it takes to reduce the chance of bringing his NRL<\/a> career to a premature close.<\/p>\n

\"NRLCANBERRA, AUSTRALIA – AUGUST 08: Jake Trbojevic of the Eagles leaves the field for a HIA during the round 23 NRL match between Canberra Raiders and Manly Sea Eagles at GIO Stadium, on August 08, 2025, in Canberra, Australia. (Photo by Mark Nolan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As per The Daily Telegraph, Trbojevic said the data behind the headgear was what drove him to make the decision.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never worn a headgear, and this one is a little bit different, but as I said there is a lot of research behind it, so to me it was silly if I didn’t give it a go,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The fact that there is research behind it, when you get head knocks that your brain doesn’t accelerate as much, I think that sort of just won me over the line. I was just all in, so I’m giving it a go and I don’t really care what it looks like,” Trboejvic told DT.\u00a0<\/p>\n

GameGear will run an independantly ran field trial collaborating with Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia<\/a>, to determine the performance of the headgear.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to take two years and over 600+ participants over the age of 16 to take part in NRL<\/a> and AFL<\/a> pathways, from junior to professional competitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Welch went to X (formerly known as Twitter) to give his opinion on the headgear, saying “If there’s a small chance it makes our game safer, happy days, time to let the study play out.”<\/p>\n

AFL<\/a> star and 2002 Brownlow Medal winner Simon Black is also backing the headgear to make a change in contact sports, advocating for the trial that will be tested amongst junior Australian football.<\/p>\n

With Welch finishing his career with eight concussions, and Trbojeivc’s run with three-consecutive head-knocks in one season, discussion around player welfare is paramount moving into the 2026 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired Melbourne Storm star Christian Welch has given his say on the newly-studied concussion headgear that Manly Sea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-459036","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\/459036","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=459036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}