Highlander warns of life-changing consequences following sporting clash

But what happens when that passion is taken too far.

One Highlands man who sustained long-term injuries - after an opposing player collided with him on the sporting field last year – has spoken about the impact it has had on his life.

He said his injuries as a result of the incident included a fractured and crushed L1 vertebrae (15 per cent loss of anterior vertebral body height), a fractured seventh rib and dislocated costochondral joint (where the bone of the ribs meets the cartilage of the sternum)

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said as a result of the collision, he flipped into the air and landed heavily on his back.

“I knew I was in serious trouble as my legs were immediately useless, I had maybe five per cent control of them for the next 15-20 minutes,” he said.

“Until recently, I haven’t been able to pick up my kids, or do our usual family sports or activities. It has been a real struggle to perform at full capacity in my job, which carries some heavy responsibility and requires me to stand for long periods of time in the operating theatre. I am constantly walking a painful knife-edge with my rehabilitation, too much activity results in days of ongoing pain, discomfort, lost sleep and an overall delay in my recovery or if I don’t do enough rehab, it extends my recovery too.

“Pain is a constant part of my life at the moment and knowing the difference between good aches and bad pain is not easy to learn.”

The man said his family was an active one and spent a lot of time doing sports, which he was now unable to do as a result of his injuries.

Looking to the future, he said he did not know what impact these injuries would have long term.

“There are plenty of studies that point to extended periods of back pain but there is also further concern around the permanently malformed vertebrae and whether or not it will trigger early onset osteoarthritis or weaken the T12/L1 disc above the vertebra. Only time will tell.”

And while many sports are contact and require a bit of aggression, several sporting associations which encompass the Highlands have said they have been proactive in recent years to prevent that aggression going too far.

Illawarra District Rugby Union (IDRU) president Peter Woods said rugby had knuckled down in the past few years against shoulder charges and high tackles which could lead to serious injury.

He said they employed a card system- first a yellow card which puts players in the sin bin for 10 minutes and repeated infringements would result in a red card and send off.

“We don’t seem to have many people throwing punches anymore and that’s good. They’re dealt with quite harshly,” Woods said.

“There’s always the odd occasion. We still have little blow ups, you’re dealing with humans. But we have zero tolerance.”

He said this year IDRU had also introduced into the rules that when a club or team reached a certain number of yellow cards they would lose competition points.

Woods said IDRU would look at lowering the number of yellow cards for next season as it had proven to be an effective deterrent.

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In rugby league, Group 6 CEO Stephen Hazleton said it “hadn’t really been a problem” for them in the past few years.

He said the Group’s code of conduct, in which the severity of injuries were taken into account and could add to the severity of the charge, had helped to control overly aggressive behaviour on the field.

Players can submit impact statements which would also have a bearing on the charge.

And in the worst case scenario Hazleton said players could be classed as “undesirable” and removed from the Group.

Following violence in two of the 2018 grand final matches, Group 6 cited several players across the four clubs, withheld prize money, issued fines, and in the case of Oran Park/Gregory Hills, kicked them out of the Group.

Hazleton said Group 6 had also recorded all first grade and reserve grade games this year with all the games going up on Youtube.

All finals games were recorded in 2018.

These videos can be used by the judiciary panel and he said clubs could also request footage to be reviewed by the match review committee.

“The best tool we have is the video,” he said.

“Most of our melees now are push and shove. But anything the referee misses the video will get. We remind our players [their] behavior might be seen by the public.”

Hazleton said they had been recording first and reserve grade games for the past three years and hoped to expand that to the under-18 competition in future seasons.

“Any behaviour that puts the code in a bad light, players will be held accountable for.”

Southern Highlands Netball Association competition coordinator Kate Bow said the association promoted the Shoosh for Kids campaign.

The campaign encourages grassroots sports to promote positive behaviours around the sporting field to discourage abuse of players and officials, which can lead to a reduction in volunteers and participation rates.​

Highlands Soccer Association (HSA) manager Michael Hamilton said the HSA had “hardly had a red card for anything untoward” this year.

“I don’t remember the last time we had an incident for really violent conduct,” he said.

“Most of the red cards have been for backchat to the referee.”

Hamilton said sanctions for violent conduct were dictated by Football NSW and there “would have to be fair degree of intent and malice” for players to receive a harsh sanction.

“You can have competitive games without the boundaries being pushed to foul play,” Hamilton said.

“It’s important for organisations to acknowledge the standard and then enforce that.”

The injured Highlands man said it was important that people remembered the aim of sport at a community level was to have fun and keep fit.

He urged people who felt they had a problem during a match to use official channels to sort out their grievances rather than let aggression get the better of them. 

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