RUGBY league needs to protect players’ heads, necks and spinal columns.
This is the view of Wire legend Paul Cullen, who is also chair of the Match Review Panel which deals with disciplinary within the professional game.
Speaking with passion about the sport that he loves, the ex-Warrington player and coach says fellow professionals of his age have been ‘battered’ by playing hundreds of games.
To prevent more from ending up in ‘serious trouble,’ greater protection needs to be given to players in the current sport.
“The way that the game is, for those that think that the Match Review Panel or the referees probably are not quite doing the game the justice and service it needs, the message is really simple,” he told the Warrington Guardian.
“The tide is coming in and we are up to our teeth. We have to protect players’ heads, necks and spinal column.
“It’s not even a question anymore. The game is beyond where it used to be.
“I’m 60 years of age now, and a lot of my friends are in serious, serious trouble because of the damage done by the way that we played and the careers that they had.
“I would like to think that the next 60-year-old, the next 50-year-old, the next 40-year-old, as we come to the end of a very short career in professional sport, that their heads, necks and spinal columns and then all their other joints are in a far better state than mine and people who are older than me that I love and respect, and a lot of people around me and quite a few younger than me.
“They were absolutely battered by the game, and I am really, really proud of the work we are doing to keep rugby league going.
“Because if we don’t do what we are doing, the game will not exist going forward, and people really need to get a grip of that.”
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