Yep. However the NRL won't sanction one of their favoured teams. Watch them talk their way out of it by saying that they took ALL due care with the player.....the observer on the soideline should have insisted Hughes leave the field.
I made the comment after the incident happened today and when it was replayed several times on the big screen for everyone to see that BOTH: I REPEAT BOTH players needed to immediately leave the field to have HIA protocol undertaken. That in my opinion should always be the case. It is much like seeing a collision between two cars, in which one is less crumpled but nonetheless still damaged. Both need a bit ,or a lot of panel beating, to make them roadworthy again.
As usual, wasting time, giving Melbourne a rest to regroup, the Storm trainer stuffed around and BOTH players were still on the field after the game recommenced with the ball still in our possession. . Finucane eventually reluctantly left the field a minute or so later via the dead ball line probably only under the direction of the medical official on the sideline .Saw the so called medical expert on the sideline looking at the TV screen in front of him where the incident would have been assessed by him. Finucane was obviously very dusty and did not seem too aware of what was going on. Hughes had been left lying prone on the ground with quite a bit of claret coming out of the head cut which was further delaying the game whilst the trainer wrapped metres of tape around the head of Hughes. Not more than a few minutes after that and with the game stopped again for the same player, the trainer had to take him over the sideline to apply even more dressing to the cut. Finucane did not return to the game but sat on the bench for the remainder.
The head clash was extremely brutal and with the fact that Hughes was left on the ground for quite some time and required several attempts to stop the flow of blood WHY WAS HE NOT TAKEN FROM THE FIELD FOR AN HIA.?
Makes an absolute joke of the whole system and if Finucane was concussed surely you would imagine that unless Hughes had a head made of granite and no brain in his skull he too would have been concussed.What should have set the alarm bells ringing even more was the fact Hughes had been concussed two weeks previously and missed last weeks game due to that concussion.
The trainer would have known the particulars of the previous concussion and should have insisted he leave the field but if he failed the protocol that would have been TWO free interchanges lost for not returning to the field at the fifteen minute mark after going.
Interesting reading in relation to concussion and the protocol to follow...looking at today, Hughes demonstrated several of the observable signs
https://www.nrl.com/operations/the-players/management-of-concussion/
Game Day Management
The most important steps in the early management of concussion include:
1. Recognising the injury;
2.
Removing the player from the game; and
3. Referring the player to a medical practitioner (doctor) for assessment.
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/early/2017/04/26/bjsports-2017-097508CRT5.full.pdf
STEP 2: OBSERVABLE SIGNS Visual clues that suggest possible concussion include: • Lying motionless on the playing surface •
Slow to get up after a direct or indirect hit to the head • Disorientation or confusion, or an inability to respond appropriately to questions • Blank or vacant look • Balance, gait difficulties, motor incoordination, stumbling, slow laboured movements •
Facial injury after head trauma
Anyone notice how many times we use the HIA to give players a rest rather then use a sub ? I.e Aiden Toleman in the first half pretending to shake his head like he had a bump
No, he did cop a shot to the head and unlike the Storm players he left the field IMMEDIATELY.The referee actually stopped the play pretty much after it happened. That was at the 28.47 minute mark of the first half. Tolman returned for the second half after he had served the maximum 15 minutes allowed. Tolman more often than not plays a great number of minutes in a game.