Pacific Championships 2025

Joel.M said:
Woolf wouldn’t have seen the tackle, it’s up to the medical staff to make that decision
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So no one mentions a player took a heavy hit in warm up to the coach ? No assistants or trainers even?

As mentioned before. Sounds like they avoided a HIA when it’s clear he took a heavy hit. You can see at least one staff with him in the footage while still on the ground. I find it crazy that Woofe didn’t know.
 
The doctors who sit in a studio somewhere and watch replays to make decisions on concussion would only be working from kickoff.

There would have been a trainer with the team, but fair chance he wasn't looking at that one player at that moment, or he would have been as concerned as all of us who have seen the slow motion replay.
If the trainer gave him the test and he passed, I don't know what else he could do. He doesn't have a studio and slow motion replays from different angles to help him.
Woolfe was probably told he took a knock and passed the usual test - nothing else to go on.
 
Katoa took a big head knock in warm ups. If no one saw his reaction to it, I can understand that they did the usual concussion test and that he passed and that’s what Woolfe was told

Having seen the footage, im sceptical on that though

What is really concerning, in my opinion, is that they knew of his head knock in warm ups, but when he got his first head knock in the game they let him back on after he passed the test. I was under the impression that 2 head knocks requiring a concussion test in a game automatically ruled you out for the rest of the game. I assumed that also includes warm ups for the game

Melbourne will be furious.

I hope for Katoa’s sake he makes a full recovery and can complete a full preseason
 
Apparently they didn’t even do a head injury assessment on Katoa after the warm up incidents. Even the average person watching would’ve said no way he should play, so how any off the staff allowed it I’ll never know. It’s just unbelievable and so incredibly negligent. It’s not 1985 ffs

As if that wasn’t bad enough that they let him take the field, they then allowed him to return to the field after the second head knock. They don’t take him off for good until the third one.

It’s beyond belief really that this could happen in 2025 in a supposedly professional sport.

The Storm are going to be absolutely filthy and rightly so. Who would release their players to play for Tonga after that?

Wouldn’t blame Katoa at all if decided to sue for negligence
 
Did I imagine a world where clubs must video all their training sessions to help identify training HIAs and make them auditable?

I’m not sure how the footage can be shown on broadcast before the game starts and Katoa be allowed to play. Surely that’s a category 1 if it happens in game.

Going to be a very damning investigation into this I think.


Just to be devils advocate here, and not intending to victim blame, but more genuinely curious: do the players (still not) feel empowered enough to recognise and raise concussion issues?

I’ve never been knocked out. But I’ve had a few head clashes and wound up feeling like my brain was floating in fizzy drink. Or ringing ears and dizziness. I was maybe 15 or so when I encountered this, but it was pretty hard to forget.
I recall (former NRL player) Papenhauzen either had a training knock or game knock with no immediate effects until a few days later when he developed a mild headache and they sat him out for a week or 2. I guess it would’ve been easy to say “no headache”.
Is there still a stigma? We know historically it was a sign of ‘toughness’ - whereas now we are trying to shift it to ‘stupidity’.


I’d like the NRL to do some kind of anonymous player survey to identify if there is still stigma, and address that.

Granted it should not be up to the player to rule themself out, or to say they are okay. But surely they have some idea what’s going on. Some innocuous HIAs you can basically see the player say “yehh, I’m gone”.
Katoa is a tough dude - but does he know he was knocked out? (Genuinely curious). We saw Hunt get knocked out in the GF and comes to and tries to run back into the line. So there is a lack of comprehending what is going on. But I’d be curious to know when/if players do realise something has happened.
 
Don’t understand the Katoa situation, if pre game concussion was serious, iIT LOOKED IT, and even though it wasn’t dealt with, assessed, then the first on field incident should have shown the seriousness of the concussion and he should have failed the medical assessment then even without prior knowledge of the pre-game incident.
It should not have taken a second on field to withdraw him from the game.
Or was the second on field incident the serious one and the first off and on field minor.
Or is the assessment process flawed
 
Teague had another good game for Cook Islands - topped the tackle count by a long way with 35, second highest fantasy points with 68.
Commentator seemed to think he is still at the Knights.
He doesn't have any other club listed.
I don't think he'd ever play firstgrade for us, but his big motor and low mistake rate makes the little guy one of our best in reserve grade every week.
He wouldn't be bad to keep for reserve grade squad, but if he gets an offer anywhere else, he should go.
 
I’m in Parramatta now and can report a lot of Samoa tops, flags etc and I think I’ve seen one other Kiwi top. 😂
 
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