Footy great Garry Lyon calls for concussions to be re-named ‘brain injuries’ – after losing his close mate Danny Frawley to CTE
- AFL legend Garry Lyon hates the word concussion
- Want to see ‘brain injury’ used by football commentators
- Lyon’s close friend Danny Frawley took his own life in 2019
- Scans revealed CTE in his brain, likely stemming from a football career
AFL legend Garry Lyon has called on football commentators to correctly label on-field concussions as ‘brain injuries’ – his impassioned plea comes after he lost close friend Danny Frawley to CTE in 2019.
Lyon’s comments follow growing concerns about the long-term effects of on-pitch clashes, with several former players diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after their deaths in recent years.
They include Frawley, Graham Farmer, Murray Weidemann, Shane Tuck and Heather Anderson.
CTE – which involves exposure to repetitive head trauma – causes memory loss, confusion, depression and progressive dementia.
‘We [commentators] say concussion. But what is that? It means the brain is bouncing around in the skull,” Lyon said News Corp.
AFL legend Garry Lyon has called on football commentators to now call on-field concussions ‘brain injuries’
Lyon’s impassioned plea comes after he lost his close friend Danny Frawley to CTE in 2019
‘We should call it a brain injury, because that’s what it is. And I will continue to call it a brain injury.
“I’m more than happy to shine a light and keep it at the forefront for the powers that be.”
Former St Kilda legend Frawley, who Lyon described as an “unconditional partner”, was diagnosed with CTE after taking his own life the day after his 56th birthday in 2019.
Outside of football, Kings’ attacks in public – often fueled by alcohol – are now referred to as ‘coward punches’.
The term has government backing and follows the death of Thomas Kelly in July 2012 when he was attacked by Kieran Loveridge in Sydney’s Kings Cross.
And after an attack on New Year’s Eve in 2013, Daniel Christie died in hospital days later after crossing paths with a heavily drunk Shaun McNeil at the same location.
McNeil was later was jailed for at least seven and a half years after the unprovoked attack.
And according to the Pat Cronin FoundationSince 2000, at least 170 Australians have been killed in a dastardly blow.
A recent study by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine found that more than 90 percent of all victims were male.
When an individual is cowardly beaten, the impact causes their brains to hit their skull.
The brain can then bounce back and hit the other side of the skull, the ‘rattling’ damaging and tearing the soft tissue.
Bleeding in the skull or brain, or hemorrhage, can be fatal without immediate treatment.
