When we first heard the news of this i had a feeling this was coming.
I can imagine a precedent being set and we'll see a huge amount of change / introduction to new policies around player welfare / training etc moving forward.
Shame it had to be us tho.
No doubt RFM and the others who disappeared over the offseason will back topine so we better have some current players who wrestled him for example in our corner
Hopefully no-one has a problem with more being put into player welfare.
And that includes everything from reporting working place hazards like sharp edges on witches hats to making sure players are ready for their post-NRL career and can avoid early-onset dementia.
The Bulldogs have always been leaders in this area of player welfare, for example in the 80s the club made a big thing about George Peponis being a doctor and players being supported by the club after they retired.
We're not far away from having players being forcibly retired after they have received a specified number of head knocks. Rather than players like Tedesco being 'advised' to retire and making their own decisions.
I've never been 100% comfortable watching rugby league knowing players are discarded at the end of their careers. With so many of them not having work or life skills, succumbing to drug and alcohol abuse, spending the rest of their lives reminiscing about their career highlight, while their brains and families collapse around them.
Having a proper player health and welfare framework around the game means we can watch and enjoy the game without being enablers to exploitation of the workers involved.
With Topine, the judicial system will get to the bottom of it.
That's why we have courts.
If the trainer and the club are found by a court to have done the wrong thing by Topine, then their decision should be accepted and rugby league will be better for it.
Unless the judge's name is Sutton.