Head injuries in GAA

[Armaghtothebone]

"Both players were going for the ball, honestly, and Burns came off worse, 50 50 ball."

A quote from the Ulster championship 2025 thread.

Burns took a blow to the head. Thankfully he was able to continue.Other players took blows to the head during the game. Taking my orange tinted glasses off, I believe on both sides.

The attitude 50/50 ball and coming off worse is still very much a thing in our game.

Compare that with rugby where every player has a duty NOT to make contact with another players head ( even if its accidental)

Gaelic football has lost some of the physicality from years gone by. Whether you think this is a good thing or not is your call, but we need to protect players from head injuries.

[Armagh18]

If theres a 50/50 ball to be won I would hope both players are going in for it as hard as possible. That is something I hope we never ever lose from our game.

[Milltown Row2]

"Both players were going for the ball, honestly, and Burns came off worse, 50 50 ball."

A quote from the Ulster championship 2025 thread.

Burns took a blow to the head. Thankfully he was able to continue.Other players took blows to the head during the game. Taking my orange tinted glasses off, I believe on both sides.

The attitude 50/50 ball and coming off worse is still very much a thing in our game.

Compare that with rugby where every player has a duty NOT to make contact with another players head ( even if its accidental)

Gaelic football has lost some of the physicality from years gone by. Whether you think this is a good thing or not is your call, but we need to protect players from head injuries.

Both players went for the ball, he didn't look at the man before, just went down over it with Burns and there was a collision with no intent, was it a free? Some would give it some might not.. There is something in the rules on accidental collisions, also when players are at the same time going for a ball, even one if they both foul each other!

The tackle in GAA is not defined, physically you can only have shoulder to shoulder contact, but watch any game at any level and if we stopped the game for every tackle then the game would be far worse for it, but safer..

[David McKeown]

"Both players were going for the ball, honestly, and Burns came off worse, 50 50 ball."

A quote from the Ulster championship 2025 thread.

Burns took a blow to the head. Thankfully he was able to continue.Other players took blows to the head during the game. Taking my orange tinted glasses off, I believe on both sides.

The attitude 50/50 ball and coming off worse is still very much a thing in our game.

Compare that with rugby where every player has a duty NOT to make contact with another players head ( even if its accidental)

Gaelic football has lost some of the physicality from years gone by. Whether you think this is a good thing or not is your call, but we need to protect players from head injuries.

Both players went for the ball, he didn't look at the man before, just went down over it with Burns and there was a collision with no intent, was it a free? Some would give it some might not.. There is something in the rules on accidental collisions, also when players are at the same time going for a ball, even one if they both foul each other!

The tackle in GAA is not defined, physically you can only have shoulder to shoulder contact, but watch any game at any level and if we stopped the game for every tackle then the game would be far worse for it, but safer..

MR2

I disagree with your interpretation of that incident. The Antrim player was never low enough to compete for the ball but looked like he was trying to make contact with the man albeit not on the head. It came after a serious of very robust tackles. I don't think he got low enough and was reckless.

Genuine competitions for the ball when both players are committed and fairly going for the ball are one thing. Reckless challenges even without intent should not be simply part of the game.

As I said though on the other thread what amounts to reckless in this context is subjective. It also went on both ways on Saturday and I'm glad no one seems to have been seriously hurt. 

[flowerpot]

Call it for what it was, thuggery, playing the man not the ball on numerous occassions.

[Milltown Row2]

Call it for what it was, thuggery, playing the man not the ball on numerous occassions.

Hopefully they all got out of intensive care over the weekend, they'd be a big loss for the Tyrone game

[tonto1888]

Call it for what it was, thuggery, playing the man not the ball on numerous occassions.

Hopefully they all got out of intensive care over the weekend, they'd be a big loss for the Tyrone game

You seem to think it's only thuggery if someone has to go to hospital.

[Milltown Row2]

Call it for what it was, thuggery, playing the man not the ball on numerous occassions.

Hopefully they all got out of intensive care over the weekend, they'd be a big loss for the Tyrone game

You seem to think it's only thuggery if someone has to go to hospital.

No, all the lads got up and played on, even the one that held his face when he wasn't even hit in it..

Armagh aint no shrinking violets, there were hits and there were fouls and the ref called them, its championship football.

Enjoy the next round, no doubt Tyrone will be a lot easier on the Armagh lads

[Armaghtothebone]

Call it for what it was, thuggery, playing the man not the ball on numerous occassions.

Hopefully they all got out of intensive care over the weekend, they'd be a big loss for the Tyrone game

You seem to think it's only thuggery if someone has to go to hospital.

No, all the lads got up and played on, even the one that held his face when he wasn't even hit in it..

Armagh aint no shrinking violets, there were hits and there were fouls and the ref called them, its championship football.

Enjoy the next round, no doubt Tyrone will be a lot easier on the Armagh lads

At no point did I want to make this about Armagh  v Antrim.
" there were hits" is exactly the phrase I'm interested in.
No problem with hits/ hard hits but there is a duty on all players not to make contact with the head of another player.
My point is that we have got it wrong.In rugby the responsibility lies totally with the tackler to avoid head contact.In our game that responsibility is not given the same importance.
I genuinely don't care if it's Armagh v Antrim or Leitrim v Sligo, a blow to the head should mean instant dismissal ( whether as a black or red at the discretion of the referee).
Unfortunately I fear it will take a serious head injury to force change.

[J70]

What about small players against big lads? We've had multiple people on here over the years having a go at Ryan McHugh, accusing him of faking head hits or, when he missed six months due to multiple head hits and concussions during a league campaign, basically saying it's his own fault.

[Wildweasel74]

What did McCabe go down with. To suddenly get up when the free wasn't giving him a free,then scored a point 30 secs later. Lazurus like recovery !!

[Milltown Row2]

What did McCabe go down with. To suddenly get up when the free wasn't giving him a free,then scored a point 30 secs later. Lazurus like recovery !!

No doubt it the head injury ward after the game

[Throw ball]

Call it for what it was, thuggery, playing the man not the ball on numerous occassions.

Hopefully they all got out of intensive care over the weekend, they'd be a big loss for the Tyrone game

You seem to think it's only thuggery if someone has to go to hospital.

No, all the lads got up and played on, even the one that held his face when he wasn't even hit in it..

Armagh aint no shrinking violets, there were hits and there were fouls and the ref called them, its championship football.

Enjoy the next round, no doubt Tyrone will be a lot easier on the Armagh lads

At no point did I want to make this about Armagh  v Antrim.
" there were hits" is exactly the phrase I'm interested in.
No problem with hits/ hard hits but there is a duty on all players not to make contact with the head of another player.
My point is that we have got it wrong.In rugby the responsibility lies totally with the tackler to avoid head contact.In our game that responsibility is not given the same importance.
I genuinely don't care if it's Armagh v Antrim or Leitrim v Sligo, a blow to the head should mean instant dismissal ( whether as a black or red at the discretion of the referee).
Unfortunately I fear it will take a serious head injury to force change.

I agree totally with you here. There have been far too many tackles to the head so far in the championship. Leaving Armagh v Antrim aside many have said Paudie Clifford should never have got a red. I'd be more of the opinion that while I would have given a yellow if the referee considers it severe enough we cannot complain about the red. If players thought they could get a red they may be more careful in their tackling.

I also find it worrying that some consider it part of the game. Head injuries can have lifelong effects.

[Milltown Row2]

Call it for what it was, thuggery, playing the man not the ball on numerous occassions.

Hopefully they all got out of intensive care over the weekend, they'd be a big loss for the Tyrone game

You seem to think it's only thuggery if someone has to go to hospital.

No, all the lads got up and played on, even the one that held his face when he wasn't even hit in it..

Armagh aint no shrinking violets, there were hits and there were fouls and the ref called them, its championship football.

Enjoy the next round, no doubt Tyrone will be a lot easier on the Armagh lads

At no point did I want to make this about Armagh  v Antrim.
" there were hits" is exactly the phrase I'm interested in.
No problem with hits/ hard hits but there is a duty on all players not to make contact with the head of another player.
My point is that we have got it wrong.In rugby the responsibility lies totally with the tackler to avoid head contact.In our game that responsibility is not given the same importance.
I genuinely don't care if it's Armagh v Antrim or Leitrim v Sligo, a blow to the head should mean instant dismissal ( whether as a black or red at the discretion of the referee).
Unfortunately I fear it will take a serious head injury to force change.

I agree totally with you here. There have been far too many tackles to the head so far in the championship. Leaving Armagh v Antrim aside many have said Paudie Clifford should never have got a red. I'd be more of the opinion that while I would have given a yellow if the referee considers it severe enough we cannot complain about the red. If players thought they could get a red they may be more careful in their tackling.

I also find it worrying that some consider it part of the game. Head injuries can have lifelong effects.

Some head injuries are accidental, and unavoidable due to the speed and size of players. It's like people are saying they they are intentionally deliberate, which in the vast majority is not the case, the wet surfaces, lads slipping and lowering the head while a players timing is off..

Most ref's are sending of deliberate head high tackles, yes there is a duty of care, and that's on the person who's making a challenge but sometimes it's an accident.. the worst ones are those coming in late, not miss timed, shoulder/elbow to the face/head, a heavier suspension should be attributed to that tackle to try and deter that 'hard man' challenge.

Haven't seen Clifford's one so can't comment on it yet.. he's a robust type player so wouldn't surprise me if it was a red

Going back to the Armagh game I think Antrim have come in for some stick but the yellow dished out for playing the man after the ball, was correct, the timing of the lads trying to dip the ball at the same time was unfortunate on Burns but no malice intended.

If people are genuinely concerned about head injuries the skull caps could be an option, because the pace and size of players is only going to get quicker and bigger

[David McKeown]

Again I think you may have Antrim tinged glasses on MR2. As I may have Armagh tinged glasses. For me the one playing the man after the ball has been playing was a text book black card and the first could very well have been red. The Antrim player never made an attempt to get low enough to properly compete for the ball. He was reckless as a result and hit Burns in the head with his shoulder in circumstances where it was completely avoidable.