Ashes / Pacific Champs 2025

bort said:
Ideally not
Probably cat 1 on field

NRL obviously didn’t have any warmup regulations in place, like footage could have been forwarded along to independent doc asap
The fact nobody around pushed for an HIA is a concern, someone should have stepped up.
I’ve ruled people out of sport before due to headknock concerns and it doesn’t feel good when they are insisting they are fine. But sometimes you have to be the bad guy and make the call.
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Like taking your drunk mates keys so they don’t drive really, nothing “bad guy” about that.
 
Proud Shark said:
Not that I've seen.

But Tonga are claiming ignorance....

www.smh.com.au

Tonga: We wouldn’t have let Katoa play if we’d seen this footage of warm-up clash

Tonga have been criticised for allowing Eli Katoa to play after a heavy clash during the warm-up before Sunday’s match, but officials insist they weren’t made aware of crucial video of the incident.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au
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Seems like the trainer that attended him needed to better convey the extent of the pre game hit to team doctors.

Assuming they still clear him they also probably should have pulled him after the first in game hit. If two in game rules you out one just before game and one early game seems like a safe bet to say it’s not good.
 
bort said:
Ideally not
Probably cat 1 on field

NRL obviously didn’t have any warmup regulations in place, like footage could have been forwarded along to independent doc asap
The fact nobody around pushed for an HIA is a concern, someone should have stepped up.
I’ve ruled people out of sport before due to headknock concerns and it doesn’t feel good when they are insisting they are fine. But sometimes you have to be the bad guy and make the call.
Click to expand...
I can completely understand, given the incredible atmosphere and what playing in that game clearly meant to him personally, that you give him every chance to take the field but, as you rightly say, sometimes you have got to step in and have the hard conversation for the player’s own sake.
 
Looking at the pregame footage, he should have been ruled out immediately. I don't know where the trainer was and what he actually saw of the incident, but Katoa was clearly KOed.
He's lucky the subsequent hits (the 3rd one does look rather innocuous) didn't have even worse consequences.
 
Vichyssoise said:
Looking at the pregame footage, he should have been ruled out immediately. I don't know where the trainer was and what he actually saw of the incident, but Katoa was clearly KOed.
He's lucky the subsequent hits (the 3rd one does look rather innocuous) didn't have even worse consequences.
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Some in the Tonga camp saying if they’d seen that footage they wouldn’t have played him. Hard to say what the correct course of action could have been there.
Maybe just make sure it’s in front of the games independent doctor asap, even if that bloke hasn’t started yet he surely doesn’t pop up exactly at kick off.

At this stage, perhaps regardless of what he saw pregame, after a second HIA (knowing two rules you out) the trainer perhaps needed to say he doesn’t want the player on the field anymore. Hard to see how that trainer didn’t think an assessment was warranted pre game too.
 
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