Former football great Austin Robertson Jnr is convinced he now suffers from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) as a result of repeated head trauma and says he will donate his brain to science.
The 80-year-old, widely considered one of Western Australia's greatest full-forwards, played 269 games for Subiaco and South Melbourne in the 1960s and 70s and was concussed five times during his Aussie Rules career.
Robertson told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth Mornings he would donate his brain to science, because CTE could only be diagnosed post-mortem.
"I used to get whacked on the head every week. Probably between 10 and 15 times, you'd get a smack on the back of the head, which I'm sure wasn't doing any good," he said.
He said memory loss, irritability and headaches were some of the symptoms he was now experiencing.
In his day-to-day life, he said these symptoms looked like walking into the kitchen and wondering what he was doing there, and the development of road rage.
"If I pull up behind a car at the lights and then all of a sudden they put their flicker on as though they're going to turn right, that just drives me crazy. If I had a rotten egg, I'd throw it," he said.
Robertson said while he remembered things from 60 years ago, he could not remember what he did last week.
He said although many of his elderly friends also suffered from memory loss, he believed his could be caused by CTE.
"But we won't know until I die, unless they sharpen up how they do their tests," he said.
Sling tackle, bump in spotlight
On the text line, listener Rob said he had suffered more than one concussion per year during his 15 years playing WAFL.
"It ended up taking the smallest hit to concuss, and I was called glass jaw or egg head," he said.
"I've suffered chronic migraines all my life, emotional dysregulation, memory loss.
"I gave up drinking years ago because I was a mess."
Last week during a Senate inquiry probing the management of concussion in contact sport, the family of late football player Danny Frawley urged the AFL to "act now" to prevent CTE among participants.
Frawley, who died aged 56 in 2019, was found to have CTE following a post-mortem examination of his brain.
The AFL has acknowledged the link between repetitive head knocks and CTE and is working to eradicate the sling tackle and the head-high bump from the game.
Robertson said the bump was a big part of the game in his day.
"You could deliberately line up a bloke who's got his eye on the ball running towards you … and you could get your shoulder all ready," he said.
"In my day, it was quite deliberate and legal to iron the bloke out.
"And when the bloke got ironed out, of course the crowd roared. It was like, not quite, gladiatorial Rome."
Robertson said current players should be wearing helmets.
"I know players worry about how they look and all of that. I couldn't give a damn," he said.
"I'm talking about the soft helmets worn by [Demons player Angus] Brayshaw."
Call for harsher penalties
But Sarah Hellewell, senior research fellow from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University, said helmets did not help reduce head injury from concussions.
"The evidence is showing more and more that helmets help for severe injuries … things like penetrating injuries that we might see more often in car accidents where you'll have a skull fracture and the brain tissue will have a physical lesion or a penetrating injury.
"But for things like concussions, the evidence is really showing that they don't help."
Dr Hellewell said players could get a false sense of confidence from wearing a helmet and the only way to prevent concussions on the sporting field was to reduce high tackles.
Robertson agreed that stiffer penalties needed to be introduced to deter players from bumping and sling tackling.
"You've just got to make the punishments harder," he said.
"Fining these blokes $1,500 and suspending them for one week is not going to do anything.
"But if the AFL came out and said the next guilty person for a sling tackle or bump that causes concussion will get 10 weeks' suspension and a $10,000 fine, I tell you what, they would fix the bump and sling tackle overnight."
Despite the potential CTE, Robertson said even if he had known the risks at the time, it would not have stopped him from playing.
"I don't carry any bad feelings. I love the game so much," he said.
