GWS Giants youngster Ryan Angwin has suffered a burst ear drum from an incident that has raised questions over the medical assessment which allowed him to stay on the ground.
Angwin and Collingwood midfielder Jack Crisp clashed heads in an aerial contest early in the last quarter, flooring both players.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Questions raised over medical process after big head clash
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The pair appeared to escape the collision without serious injury, but Angwin in particular was stunned for at least a brief moment, and quickly grabbed at his bleeding left ear when he got back to his feet.
Neither player came off the ground in the immediate aftermath of the hit.
It wasn’t until the dying minutes of the game that Angwin came off to be assessed.
“I think it’s a really strange look,” Xander McGuire said post-match.
“The ARC has sent a discretionary call down to the GWS doctor, who’s gone out and checked on Angwin in the moment (and then) decided that he doesn’t have to come off.”
Dale Thomas said the hit looked big enough to at least bring Angwin from the ground to assess him.
“I think when you see the player’s head go back, the arms go up, and there’s that half a second — that might be all it is — where he clearly (was affected),” Thomas said.
“Even if (he wasn’t concussed), I’d be taking the player off and putting them through some sort of test, with how strict the scrutiny around it is at the moment.
“The Jack Crisp side of it, I’ve got no issue. The doctors made a decision there that it might have been head contact, might have also been shoulder, but his symptoms were that he was straight up and playing on.”
McGuire said the optics of the incident were particularly bad when you consider the timing.
“It’s a head knock, and we’re in a week where the concussion lawsuit with the AFL is expanding, we see Zurich pull the head cover from the insurance for the AFL players because it’s just becoming too demanding,” he said.
“I think when there’s a head knock like that, there should be some sort of further assessment.
“I mean, how many times do we see concussions that are so much less obvious than that? How many times do we see delayed concussions come to the fore?
“I think a brief conversation when a player has blood that’s coming out of his ear (is necessary).”
“And I’m not saying that either of these guys were concussed and I’m not necessarily saying that anyone was negligent in the way that they handled this process.
“I think it’s just a really strange look and it’ll be questioned over the coming days as to whether the process in itself is right to allow both of those guys to continue on and play out the rest of the game.”
