SUNDAY NIGHT – PETER FITZSIMONS – KNOCKOUT BLOW
24 February 2013
From http://www.thefordhamcompany.com.au/sunday-night-peter-fitzsimons-knockout-blow/
February 24, 2013
Reporter: Peter FitzSimons
Producer: Paul Waterhouse
In this explosive and exclusive story, former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons meets two retired elite Aussie sportsmen as they discover the price they’ve paid for playing the games they love.
Greg Williams is an AFL legend, and one of the hardest men ever to play the game. In his glittering 14-year career, ‘Diesel’ won a premiership, two Brownlow Medals and was named in the AFL’s Team of the Century. .
Shaun Valentine is another tough bloke: like Williams, he copped countless on field wallopings in his career in rugby league. Williams retired at 34, Valentine at just 26. Both men are now struggling with everyday life as they battle the long-term effects of so many blows to the head during their respective careers. Both men are married with children – and both are facing the biggest challenge of their lives.
In what’s been a world first study here in Australia, the results of tests on retired professional players are revealed, and they will send shockwaves through all the codes.
Sunday Night is with both men when they undergo brain testing and receive their results. The fall-out from this story could dwarf even the current drugs scandal. The repercussions reach far and wide, as every single player will have to ask himself: is it worth it?
Sunday Night’s story came together with help from the team behind Head Games, a revealing documentary about the silent concussion crisis in American sports. In the film, athletes from the professional to the youth levels share their personal struggles in dealing with the devastating and long-term effects of concussions. Find out more about Head Games by visiting the film’s website, or CLICK HERE to watch the trailer.
Sunday Night would like to thank the following organisations for their assistance with this story: Sydney University Rugby Club, the Sports Legacy Institute in Boston, the Coburg Tigers Football Club, Carlton Football Club, and Dairy Farmers Stadium in Townsville.
A thank-you also to the charity SMART HEAD PLAY, which addresses sports concussion injuries and engages in education, risk-mitigation, rehabilitation and research funding activities.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/features/article/-/16197435/knockout-blow/
***
Knockout blows
Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:54:00 +1100
By Deakin Research Communications
From http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/stories/2013/02/25/knockout-blows
As a international rugby union player, Peter FitzSimons knows a thing or two about head injuries while playing elite sport.
He raced head-first into any number of rucks and mauls during a career with the Wallabies, and also in French rugby union, where he once “had my eye balls turned around so much I could look into my brain”.
As a journalist, FitzSimons has reached deep into the ramifications of those continuous bashings taken by the noggins of sports people in any number of sports, including VFL and AFL champion, Greg “Diesel” Williams.
Williams claimed when interviewed by FitzSimons on Channel 7’s Sunday Night program not to remember vast chunks of his career because of the damage he sustained.
Williams, a Brownlow Medallist, has taken part in a research program undertaken by Deakin University’s Dr Alan Pearce.
The research looks at Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in elite athletes. CTE is a form of encephalopathy that is a progressive degenerative disease often associated with people who have a history of multiple concussions.
How Deakin’s research has an impact
Sharing some Information and Thoughts on Head and Brain Injury 
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* “Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
~ Franz Kafka
I do really appreciate your liking, linking to and/or following this blog (and “writing in”), so “thanks for the thanx”
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– craig (as inspired by Acts 17:28 and the words of Felicia Searcy)
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– craig (as inspired by the famous quote by CS Lewis – 24th May 2012)
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The various books that Craig “felt inspired to write” are available at: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=la_B005GGMAW4_sr?rh=i%3Abooks&field-author=Craig+Lock
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All proceeds go to needy and underprivileged children –
MINE!
”Since I can never see your face,
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– James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915)
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Hi
CAN’T KEEP UP…BUT THANKS FOR THE “THANX”
MANY MORE COMMENTS OVERNIGHT and many hundreds of thousands already on my various other blogs athttp://craigsblogs.wordpress.com/2013/09/28/craigs-blogs-and-writings/…true!) …obsessive or WHAT! *So hope it’s not slowing down your loading speed!). Am really pleased you are enjoying my writings, as the reason I write is to share.
So sorry can’t reply individually to all you good people scattered around the planet, but DO try to read as many as possible daily (and even moderate a few when I get a “mo”),
* “Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
~ Franz Kafka
I do really appreciate your liking, linking to and/or following this blog (and “writing in”), so “thanks for the thanx”
“As we live and move and have our being, so from this vision, we create heaven in our own lives… and perhaps even heaven on earth.”
– craig (as inspired by Acts 17:28 and the words of Felicia Searcy)
“Aim at the earth and you may not get off the ground.
“Aim at the stars and you may reach the moon.”
“Aim at heaven and you’ll have earth thrown in…
and you may even hit the stars.”
– craig (as inspired by the famous quote by CS Lewis – 24th May 2012)
“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
“If a man is called to be a street-sweeper,
he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted,
or Beethoven composed music, or
Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well
that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say,
here lived a great street sweeper
who did his job well.”
– Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
PPS
Instead of trying to reply to each one of you, I’ll just keep on writing
“If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I’d type a little faster.”
The various books that Craig “felt inspired to write” are available at: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=la_B005GGMAW4_sr?rh=i%3Abooks&field-author=Craig+Lock
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005GGMAW4 andhttp://goo.gl/vTpjk
All proceeds go to needy and underprivileged children –
MINE!
”Since I can never see your face,
And never shake you by the hand,
I send my soul through time and space
To greet you. You will understand.”
– James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915)
LikeLike
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