Nathan Fitzgerald died in hospital on Monday after suffering multiple head injuries during a football match. Photograph: Epping Football Club\/PR IMAGE<\/p>\n
Much has been made of this concrete pitch<\/a>. Neurophysiologist Prof Alan Pearce said \u201ccommon sense would tell you that this was an accident waiting to happen. There is no give in a concrete structure, so there is no absorption for the brain.\u201d Former player-manager turned campaigner Peter Jess, who calls the AFL \u201ca concussion factory\u201d, has called on the league to conduct annual safety checks of grounds used in all levels of the sport. He says it\u2019s unacceptable that lower levels of football are subject to different safety standards than the top tier. This, mind you, is a league that still can\u2019t ascertain what is and isn\u2019t a goal. To expect them to enforce universal safety protocols and ensure professional-like conditions across tens of thousands of ovals for junior, men\u2019s, women\u2019s and seniors games every week is a stretch.<\/p>\n Similar discussions of risk and blame were raised after the death of 17-year-old Ben Austin<\/a>, who was struck in the head at cricket training in Melbourne last October, and later died. Cricket is a sport loaded with risk. You\u2019re at the mercy of the toss, the weather, the turf, the equipment, the bowler and the ball. All cricketers navigate similar dangers \u2013 whether they\u2019re facing Mitchell Starc at Lord\u2019s or in the nets in Melbourne\u2019s suburbs. Ben\u2019s dad, wearing his late son\u2019s club cap, spoke of this a few days later. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the game\u2019s fault,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A footballer faces very different dangers to a cricketer, and a reserves footballer in the suburbs faces very different dangers to a professional in the AFL<\/a>. League footballers play on well-curated turf, under the control of four umpires, and with the support of an incredibly strong players\u2019 union. But the bodies are getting bigger, the game is getting faster, the hits are getting harder and obtaining insurance is increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n Epping footballer Nathan Fitzgerald death, aged 27, died at Lalor football ground. His death is a reminder of the passionate community outside the sport\u2019s top league. Photograph: James Ross\/AAP<\/p>\n The risks in local football are different, and vary according to the standard of play and umpiring, the quality and availability of ovals, and the access to medical help. They are compounded at clubs that operate on a shoestring, in municipalities where population growth is booming and where oval space is scarce. Local players will tell you that a covered concrete pitch is not particularly unusual, and no more dangerous than uneven surfaces, grounds that double as dog parks, turf wickets that have become rock hard, or fences that are too close to the boundary line. Most who have played contact sport have stories of tragedies, of freak accidents, of near misses, of split seconds where the players are like flies to wanton boys. Two years ago, Michael Pisker, a player in Melbourne\u2019s premier amateur division, was kneed in the eye socket, and suffered catastrophic injuries to his face, skull and brain. He spent a fortnight in a coma and lost an eye.<\/p>\n It\u2019s natural in circumstances like this to want to blame someone or something \u2013 the tackler, the AFL, the local council, even the sport itself. What\u2019s harder to grapple with is the inherent risk that comes with playing such a sport, a risk that every participating adult understands. This is how the tragedy of Nathan\u2019s death differs from the tragedies of CTE<\/a>. The great shame of CTE is that players and parents didn\u2019t know the risks. They weren\u2019t educated on the dangers. The governing body listened to the wrong people.<\/p>\n
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