Mayo Medical Team should be Sacked

[INDIANA]

No where near as bad as Enda Gilvarry and co. leaving Cian Hanley on after collapsing repeatedly with a cruciate tear v Kerry at minor in 2014.

Sadly Mayo are far from alone. Dublin left O'Gara totally frigged out on the field in the 2013 AI final themselves.

Big difference between o gara's torn hamstring and lee Keegan's head injury. With concussion another hit on lee Keegan could have had major repercussions.  First game of the season and game already lost no excuse to leave him on

No excuse to leave any of the players listed on.

Talking through your arse as ever. A hamstring heals- your brain doesn't

Not in 20 minutes young ladeen.

I think playing in an AI final and winning it justifies the call. Hamstrings are easily treatable with the correct laser treatment so no lasting damage

O Carroll shouldn't have stayed on. but he insisted.

[Syferus]

No where near as bad as Enda Gilvarry and co. leaving Cian Hanley on after collapsing repeatedly with a cruciate tear v Kerry at minor in 2014.

Sadly Mayo are far from alone. Dublin left O'Gara totally frigged out on the field in the 2013 AI final themselves.

Big difference between o gara's torn hamstring and lee Keegan's head injury. With concussion another hit on lee Keegan could have had major repercussions.  First game of the season and game already lost no excuse to leave him on

No excuse to leave any of the players listed on.

Talking through your arse as ever. A hamstring heals- your brain doesn't

Not in 20 minutes young ladeen.

I think playing in an AI final and winning it justifies the call. Hamstrings are easily treatable with the correct laser treatment so no lasting damage

O Carroll shouldn't have stayed on. but he insisted.

No it doesn't. He helped neither himself or his team trying to play on in that state. O'Gara's man could so easily have been the one to overhaul a single point win too.

Oversight was badly needed on the line that day. The previous set-up had also managed to OK Alan Brogan playing against Mayo the year before, a player not able to run and who took the better part of two years to be fit enough to have a meaningful role for Dublin again.

Even the biggest of school yard boys are prone to utterly reckless use of players.

[Donnellys Hollow]

Rory O'Carroll suffered a concussion in a high-profile incident in the 2013 All-Ireland football final but was left to play on for the final 16 minutes as Dublin had already used their five permitted substitutes.

There probably should be an extra substitute allowed in the case of a doctor deeming that a player may be concussed. You can never be too careful with head injuries. At least if the player could be replaced there wouldn't be the same pressure from management and supporters to keep an injured player on the field. The only potential downside would be opening up the possibility of similar incidents to bloodgate in rugby a few years ago. Win at all costs is becoming the norm in inter county GAA and our games are the worse for it.

[J70]

Rory O'Carroll suffered a concussion in a high-profile incident in the 2013 All-Ireland football final but was left to play on for the final 16 minutes as Dublin had already used their five permitted substitutes.

There probably should be an extra substitute allowed in the case of a doctor deeming that a player may be concussed. You can never be too careful with head injuries. At least if the player could be replaced there wouldn't be the same pressure from management and supporters to keep an injured player on the field. The only potential downside would be opening up the possibility of similar incidents to bloodgate in rugby a few years ago. Win at all costs is becoming the norm in inter county GAA and our games are the worse for it.

If management, including the medical team, are prone to that type of pressure and cannot put the welfare of the player first, then the decision should be taken out of their hands.

And as someone said earlier, head injuries should be treated like blood subs, perhaps with a mandatory, minimum duration, assessment period.

[Mayo4Sam]

How many of you were actually at the game yesterday?

I kept an eye on Keegan afterwards, I saw him run for two defensive tackles, one in particular he was moving forward to join the attack which broke down, turned assessed which player he should track back after and then tore down the field to tackle the man with the ball, it was right under the main stand.

To say he was clearly in distress is pure nonsense. Yes leaving the pitch he was clearly in distress but prior to that there were no signs. Maybe he should have been taken off at the time, I thought the game was over, why wouldn't they. But to use it to have a cheap shot at a medical team who have a day job is bollix.

[AZOffaly]

I was watching him on TV Mayo4Sam, and he looked like he was woozy after the hit, and he looked very distressed coming off, and when he was sitting down in the dugout afterwards. There was a few shots of him.

The fact of the matter here is if there is a serious head collision like that, the man should come off for an assessment at least of 10 minutes or so. The player will nearly always say he's grand, but that's no excuse. If he was hobbling around saying he was grand he'd be taken off regardless, if you have a sub available.

In the case of a head impact, either off the ground or off another man, the player should be brought off and given a chance to settle down and be observed in a calmer environment. It was ironic because I heard James Horan talking on Newstalk on Sunday morning about concussion and the Mayo staff being so proactive with Aidan O'Shea and Cillian O'Connor against Kerry, but I couldn't understand what they were at yesterday.

Rory O'Carroll in the AIF the same deal. What the player says in the immediate aftermath of the hit is irrelevant. How he reacts to the doctors when he's sat down off the pitch is more germane to whether he should play on or not. So I agree there should be a 10 minute concussion assessment 'bin', where you can be replaced by another sub, similar to the blood sub.

[Mayo4Sam]

AZ my point was that between the hit and him being taken off he looked fine, to me seemed to be making decisions, basically looked like he always does.
Obviously when he could barely walk and had to be helped off the pitch it looked terrible and worrying.
But I don't think the medical team can be blamed, the lad looked fine between those two points.

The title of this thread is that they should be sacked, they shouldn't IMO


I do agree there should be a protocol for this kinda thing. Saying that a player should be taken off when their head impacts the ground wouldn't cut it IMO, too ambiguous, and too wide reaching

[rosnarun]

no point in arguing about yesterday . there no one on the mayo Team who would now try and justify the decision.
Sacking  is too beig a punishment but maybe there couls be some reprimand for medical team no idea what? Public Warning maybe

Lets just hope this is another watershed moment in Player welfare

[AZOffaly]

Speaking as someone who has had this happen to them 3 times definitely, and probably a 4th, I would definitely recommend that anyone who has a high impact collision with the ground or an opponent, where they stay down for a period,  should have a mandatory assessment. If a sub could replace them for 10 minutes, it's not the end of the world.

[Tubberman]

They put the hands up - they got the call wrong. In fact, there shouldn't have been a decision to make. If there's a head impact, take him off for at least an assessment period (sounds like that needs to be catered for in playing rules).
However, this is one of the top intercounty medical teams, and they proved player welfare is top priority in the AISF replay in Limerick when Aidan O'Shea and Cillian O'Connor clashed heads. That arguably cost Mayo a place in the final, but it was the correct decision.
Calling for them to be sacked is a tabloidesque reaction, but it has at least brought the issue to the forefront in GAA player welfare.

[AZOffaly]

For what it's worth, I wouldn't be sacking or reprimanding the medical team. They obviously acted in good faith, but they don't have the room to do a proper assessment in the middle of the pitch as a lad is telling them he's fine.

That's why I'd favour a mandatory replacement to just let everything cool down. I'm sure the medical team had doubts, and that's a horrible position to put them in.

[Nihilist]

How many of you were actually at the game yesterday?

I kept an eye on Keegan afterwards, I saw him run for two defensive tackles, one in particular he was moving forward to join the attack which broke down, turned assessed which player he should track back after and then tore down the field to tackle the man with the ball, it was right under the main stand.

To say he was clearly in distress is pure nonsense. Yes leaving the pitch he was clearly in distress but prior to that there were no signs. Maybe he should have been taken off at the time, I thought the game was over, why wouldn't they. But to use it to have a cheap shot at a medical team who have a day job is bollix.

He was involved in a big tackle about 8/9 mins after the initial one with Cadogen. It was after this that he had to go off. He probably was not 100% after the collision with Cadogen but the question is was he able to continue? I don't know the exact rules on concussion. Is there an on-field assessment? I would assume he passed these checks ok but wasn't 100% and after the second big hit. In fairness no one would be after such a collision. Either way it came back to haunt him.

The big question for me is what are the correct protocols and is the on field assessment a waste of time?

[Hardy]

The whole point is that there are as many opinions on what should have happened as there are people commenting. It's time for a protocol to be enforced by rule to take the as much of uncertainty and subjective judgement out of it as possible. It shouldn't be hard. There's a template in the rugby procedure. I don't see why ours should be much different, except perhaps to err more on the side of caution. You get hit in the head, you go off for a medical assessment, regardless of what you say or the sideline says. The referee enforces it. Where no medical assessment is available, you go off and stay off.

And something to remember is that you can get a serious concussion without being hit in the  head. A body collision that causes your head to accelerate relative to your body can concuss you.

[Keyser soze]

Having had a few concussions over the years I can relate my own experience.

The results for the hit are not always immediately obvious even to the recipient. Further contact, making a hard physical effort such as  hard sprint or even just the passage of time can bring the symptoms on. These can be quite distressing, dizziness, disorientation, nausea and headache can come a good time after the event, though there is always the disconcerting feeling that you are in somewhat of a 'bubble' immediately after the collision.

[AZOffaly]

Exactly. That 'aura'. The feeling that your brain is swimming around in your head like a goldfish in a bowl.