Peter FitzSimons is hurting the concussion cause, not helping it

As his long-time colleague, it hurt but didn’t surprise. He does these things to most people who offer a contrary or slightly different position to him on concussion.

He has been relentless. He lectures players, most recently Roosters captain James Tedesco, about retiring. He’s slammed clubs, coaches, and commentators.

His constant take-downs of former Bulldogs captain James Graham, who has talked openly about his own concussion issues in a well-meaning podcast with The Australian, have become tedious.

It’s too much. Rugby league people are growing tired of being positioned as out-of-touch bogans who don’t care about their own.

We’re told to look at the likes of Steve Mortimer, Wally Lewis, George Piggins, Mario Fenech, Paul Green and others, all of who are suffering – or suffered – some form of dementia, as proof that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) exists.

Oh, we’re all more than aware that it exists. We know these people personally and know of their struggles.

‘Rugby league people are growing tired of being positioned as out-of-touch bogans.’

We’re told that the game is about to be litigated into oblivion if it doesn’t get serious about concussion.

We’re aware of that one, too. Barely a month goes by when an ambulance-chasing solicitor doesn’t reach out to me, hoping to convince former players to join a class-action against the NRL.

We’re told that the concussion protocols aren’t enough, to which I ask: are you people watching the game? Do they see how often players are leaving the field for head injury assessments? The players who don’t return? Who are stood down? Who are retiring early?

I’m not sure how many clubs, coaches, players, and officials to whom FitzSimons speaks, but I talk to them all day, every day, and I can assure you the issue is foremost in their minds.

He preaches about concussion. These people are living with it.

When you cover the game for long enough, the young players you reported on 30 years ago become middle-aged men with wives and kids and they become your friends.

I see and hear evidence of CTE in those players regularly. The slurred speech, the memory loss, the erratic and impulsive behaviour. They know it. They’re not fools.

One former player, who I won’t name, reckons CTE is a myth. At a recent lunch, he told me the same story three times. I worry about him immensely.

How dare someone accuse us of not caring about these people, our mates, just so they can fill column inches to prove they’re right and we’re wrong.

I’ve also come to understand that CTE can be a lottery. I speak to someone like Souths and Canterbury legend Bob McCarthy, who at 77 remains so clear of mind he can recall the colour of the electrical tape wrapped around an opponent’s head in the 1970s, but despairs about how many of his former teammates and foes don’t recognise him when he visits them in a nursing home. He wonders how he’s OK and they are not.

I wrote a book about his former coach, Jack Gibson, who I visited in the final weeks of his life at an aged-care facility in Sydney’s south, watching on as his wife, Judy, kissed him on the forehead even though he had no idea who she was. It was heartbreaking.

So, too, was the day I stood a metre from Roosters captain Boyd Cordner as his bottom lip quivered at his retirement media conference. His teammates present that day teared up with him.

The Roosters were flogged as heartless pricks for not making him quit sooner, their care for their player dismissed because it didn’t fit a particular narrative.

Then there’s my own grandfather, Hector Maxwell Gould Webster, who played rugby league, fought in a war, laid bricks, built houses and bought his beer by the pallet. He died of dementia.

So, in summary, we get it Fitz.

You hang your journalistic hat on your coverage of concussion and that’s fair enough. You were the first and that will never be forgotten. You deserve credit for fighting the good fight.

But wouldn’t it be more effective to bring people with you on this concussion journey, instead of continually belittling them?

Cheika in the NRL would be fascinating

I spoke to former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika at length on Wednesday night about his interest in coaching South Sydney, to whom he’s been linked following the immediate sacking of Jason Demetriou.

Speaking from Paris, where he lives and dabbles in the rag trade, Cheika revealed he’d engaged leading player agent Sam Ayoub six weeks ago to start looking for head coaching positions in the NRL now that he’s finished up as coach of Argentina’s national rugby side.

He wouldn’t talk about Souths directly. He’s smart enough to understand the job is Wayne Bennett’s if he wants it, which it seems he does.

“I’ve made that decision that I want to have a go at it and do it properly,” he said.

That said, Cheika doesn’t want to become “that guy” — the name that gets added to every list of potential coaches when someone is sacked.

Last year, there was a push for him to coach St George Illawarra, but their board wasn’t interested in having the conversation.

At what point will an NRL club take a leap of faith with Cheika? Will they take it at all?

Let’s hope so. I reckon it would be fascinating.

He’s been an agent of change at almost every club or international side he’s coached, including Lebanon at the last Rugby League World Cup. He has vast knowledge of the NRL.

As he told me last year: “It’s a leap of faith in any circumstance but many of the things that are most important in coaching are around people, alignment, direction, strategy and recruitment. There’s a line of continuity in all sports, but particularly these two codes.”

The man standing in his way at Souths, of course, is Bennett.

Souths co-owner Russell Crowe wanted Demetriou to coach out the rest of this season, but he’s been trying to entice Bennett back into the fold for weeks.

Some believe the deal with the veteran coach was done weeks ago.

If Bennett returns, he has some work to do.

The critics are launching into club officials, but the playing group needs to start wearing the blame.

That Demetriou’s farewell text to them was leaked to the media just minutes after he sent it was telling.

THE QUOTE
”Yeah, I actually did talk to Janiel Dones and he was like, ‘I’m happy that you’re here, we’re going to hit the ground running’” — The New York Giants’ No.6 draft pick, Malik Nabers, opens up on his conversation with quarterback Daniel Jones. I think.

THUMBS UP
Finally, Netball Australia is getting itself together with the appointment of Liz Ellis to its board after rejecting the former Diamonds captain’s nomination last June. Ellis can help build the bridge between the players and the governing body that has been destroyed by previous administrators.

THUMBS DOWN
Caddy Nick Pugh was hit in the back of the head with a water bottle while putting the flag back in the cup on the so-called “party hole” at the LIV Golf event at The Grange in Adelaide last Saturday. This, apparently, is the future of golf.