Leader News |
THERE is no use having the best footballers if they are not in the best health.
It's an approach adopted by local Ballarat Football League heavyweight Sunbury, which invests in its medical department as ferociously as it does in its football division.
And Bill Acton, an ambo during the week and the Lions' head trainer by Saturday, is the one who makes it all happen.
Sunbury spent north of $10,000 at the turn of last season to bolster its emergency stocks, forking out for a medical trauma kit, a spine board and a defibrillator.
The defibrillator, of course, is today a cherished tool clubs hope they'll never need to use after promising young Bacchus Marsh player Nathan Prince lost his life after suffering a cardiac arrest last year.
"Having a defib is an essential tool. At the end of the day, we don't just look after our own players, but other players and spectators, too," Acton said.
Acton is as Sunbury as Sunbury Square, and he's as much a part of the local footy furniture as the Clarke Oval goal posts.
The 47-year-old dad donned the medical threads when his kids were part of the junior structure, his foray into footy training paving the way for his career as a non-emergency Ambulance paramedic, and he has now been plying his trade in the sports medicine field for a decade.
Acton spent a year in enemy colours as head trainer of Bendigo Football League club Gisborne before being lured back to Sunbury and has wasted little time attending to a facet of the game fast emerging as a crisis for the code.
"AFL is a unique sport. When you look at Olympic-type sports and other sports like the NFL, they have a system where they assess their concussed players via a laptop program," he said.
"But it takes 25 minutes to do a test. Fortunately for them they have a lot of players that enable that player to be replaced, which we don't have.
"It's not very clear cut when a player is concussed. Senior players tend to look after themselves in that they know if something's not right and they'll bring themselves off; it's the young ones we worry about.
"I'm not sure there's a clear cut answer to it. Organisations hold regular seminars on things like concussion and trauma in football."
Acton's doing what he can, and it starts with testing each senior Lion and taking baseline data for comparative purposes in the event a player sustains a heavy knock.
Sunbury won't hesitate to despatch an ambulance in the event of one of three triggers loss of consciousness, unresponsive behaviour or signs of seizures or convulsive-like behaviour and players with head injuries have been known to spend a lengthy stint on the sidelines.
Acton's experience was put to the test last year when Sunbury stalwart Scott Lobb was knocked out cold after a heavy bump and displayed concerning ill effects.
"He had about six weeks out of football and even three or four weeks after the incident he was having symptoms of post-concussion," Acton said.
He had headaches and drowsiness, and even now complains of the occasional headache after the knock.
Fortunately Sunbury had Lobb's baseline data, meaning the club could monitor his gradual improvement over a six-week period.
When Lobb sought medical clearance to return to the field a club requirement of a concussed player he returned to the fore content in the knowledge he was fit and ready.
