The Silver Fern

Holland looking like we found our BBBR replacement.

@Frank said in All Blacks v France 2:

Reado not a natural TV man.

Our SBW?

Wayne Smith in the coaching box any correlation to performance?

Very disappointing result for Lawson, qualified 19th but up to 18th after Yuki penalty. Hadjar made Q1 but later dropped to 12th after penalty. Highly likely Hadjar will partner Max next year or even this year if Yuki continues to struggle.

@MiketheSnow I agree, good so far, however you need to pay attention in that first episode. My wife was like what is going on lol.

How long before Hadjar is promoted to Red Bull I wonder, kid has incredible pace for a rookie, perhaps he does not want the promotion given Yukis struggles.

Not much chat about Tsunoda and his lack of results at Red Bull. His results so far, I assume he would have hoped for better than that.

@canefan Yes, great result for Lawson but overshadowed by the 5th by his rookie teammate who did very well. Lawson may struggle as he has both Mercedes behind, Tsunoda the Williams etc. It will be interesting to see if the team can get it together for this one.

I have started Murderbot, enjoying it so far. Quite a bit of humour which is good, basically a Robot trying to protect stupid humans who itself hacks its programming and becomes more humanlike. Only major downside is its one episode a week and they are only 22 minutes long. In an age of 1 hour long shows it feels like its over before it begins.

Murderbot (TV Series 2025– ) ⭐ 7.4 | Action, Comedy, Drama

| TV-MA

@Dodge I understand but it is slightly ironic there is no test for CTE and it is continued concussions which cause it, saying medical professionals can somehow grade the severity of the concussion is interesting. I get that players can report no symptoms and have no cognitive issues but I just find it odd that we can somehow delineate between, 7/12/21 days stand down based on a condition that appears to be not that well understood.

I think its great we have the system we have now but it will be interesting to see how things change as the science changes. I do find it strange there is not some sort of mandatory extensions based on total number of HIA fails in a season/lifetime.

@Dodge Thanks for that, seems strange that pro players can be 7/12 days whilst the rest are 21, do pro players have extra padding in their heads? Seems they are most at risk of long-term damage. I wonder if one day we will look back and wonder why we accepted 7 days was ok.

So, nothing in relation to the number of HIA fails over seasons or careers and length of stand down?

7 Days seems more of a system to get the player playing the following week then for player safety if that makes sense.

@Dodge This is what makes it so challenging, how many brain bouncing do players endure without knowing it. I think that is one of the problems the guy in the podcast mentioned, he just didnt know how many concussions he had received until he suffered serious concussion symptoms.

Do you have any idea of the stand down periods and do they get longer the more HIA you fail, are there any rules in terms of how many you are allowed per season etc?

@mariner4life Great post and totally agree, there should be good records kept and perhaps longer progressive stand downs the more HIA you fail.

I guess with all of these sports the money for the top athletes makes the choice for the individual player even harder. That is why the governing body needs rules that enforce longer stand downs and perhaps forced retirement if they sustain x number of concussions.

Fingers crossed the test doesn’t take too long to develop.

@nonpartizan Yes, it will be interesting to see where the data leads, but I suspect Rugby has a pretty high-risk factor as well given the number of HIA fails we get every week. I assume internally they are keeping records on how many HIA fails each player gets or even checks.

I remember playing as a kid getting concussed a few times and being told to stay awake and if I start vomiting to see a doctor. But never went to a doctor and was back playing the next week. I would have taken hits to the head plenty of times and that was just all junior level stuff.

Once they get a test/scan that can check for CTE in living players we will get a full picture of how each sport is impacted.

I just watched an interview with a CTE expert who has been collecting brains from NFL players and more recently Soccer, Rugby, AFL and League and the early results are quite frankly pretty bloody scary.

With Billy Guyton being the first Rugby case where he had stage 2 of 4 CTE at age 33 when he died. Unfortunately, at the moment they can only diagnose CTE post mortem meaning we have no real idea just how many rugby players are impacted. But if NFL is any guide of the 376 brains they examined 345 had CTE or 91.7% These numbers are truly frightening. (The actual percentage will be lower as those brains collected are from players whose death maybe contributed to CTE so they are self-selecting in a way)

One interesting thing he mentioned was when he played football, he only thought you had to be knocked out to be truly concussed. He did not realise simply seeing stars, are taking a big hit could be deemed a concussion. And over years you can accumulate many concussions which ultimately lead to CTE.

He suggests that each governing body of sports should be keeping a register of concussions on every single player from school level to professional so you can track how many individual concussions each player has had so you can better determine the risks of CTE.

Chat GPT tells us the Symptoms being

Behavioral Symptoms:
Aggression: CTE can lead to increased irritability, impulsivity, and aggressive outbursts.
Impulse control problems: Difficulty managing anger, frustration, and urges.
Social withdrawal: Individuals may isolate themselves from friends and family, or become less socially appropriate.
Depression and anxiety: Mood swings, feelings of sadness, and heightened anxiety can be common.

Psychiatric Symptoms:
Suicidality: Increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Paranoia: Suspiciousness and mistrust of others.
Motor problems: Changes in gait, balance, and coordination.

Other potential symptoms:
Headaches: May experience persistent or recurrent headaches.
Slurred speech: Difficulty speaking clearly.
Unsteadiness when walking: Difficulty maintaining balance and coordination.

He also mentions soccer and that heading the ball can lead to CTE and he does not understand why young kids are heading the ball at all.

I realise Rugby is not tiddlywinks but I am curious what people's thoughts are on this. Should we be more concerned about CTE or do you think players know the risks? Will Jordan, Hayman, Conrad Smith all come to mind of players with concussion issues.

Link to podcast:

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy - Wikipedia

@Bones Must be tough being knocked out that way and seeing how well your team mate did. Big shocker for Ferrari. Oscar seems like he is odds on for the championship if he keeps up this consistency.

@barbarian said in Formula 1:

Piastri moving from Alpine to McLaren has to be one of the best sports decisions of all time.

And Mclaren paying him relatively little compared to other top drivers also worked out great for them. I assume they must have to pay him the same as Lando at some point.

@voodoo said in TV Serieseseses:

Anyone tried Eternaut?

Going to give it a whirl today

The Eternaut (TV Series 2025– ) ⭐ 7.3 | Action, Adventure, Drama

1h | TV-MA

Pretty enjoyable so far, acting seems good and probably pretty accurate as to how humans behave. I am undecided on the bugs though, but I guess that is no more of a stretch than fungi infected humans or zombies.

@canefan Seems the story of his season, must be tough.

Sprint results. Lawson gets first points of season in his best so far. Red Bull having a shocker of a weekend. How did they release Max right into Kimi.

Miami GP Sprint Result

1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:40.334
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren + 0.672
3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari + 1.073
4 Alex Albon Williams + 2.522
5 George Russell Mercedes + 3.127
6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin + 3.412
7 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls+ 4.024
8 Oliver Bearman Haas + 4.218
9 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull+ 5.153
10 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes + 5.635
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine + 5.973
12 Nico Hulkenberg Kick Sauber + 6.153
13 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls + 7.502
14 Esteban Ocon Haas + 8.998
15 Gabriel Bortoleto Kick Sauber + 9.675
16 Jack Doohan Alpine + 9.909
17 Max Verstappen Red Bull + 12.059
R Charles Leclerc Ferrari
R Fernando Alonso Aston Martin
R Carlos Sainz Williams