Special guest, Professor Michael Buckland, Head of Neuropathology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the founder and Director of the Australian Sports Brain Bank talks about the effects of concussion on the brain and the link to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). Amongst other things he said it’s not just the number of concussions sustained that is relevant but the number of years of contact sport played that is also pertinent to developing CTE. Therefore, it’s important to try and delay the age at which a child has first exposure to full contact sport. For further details about CTE go to brainbank.org.au

Paul Dalligan and the panel reviewed round 9 of the NRL season and discussed the announcement of the NRLW season opener between Gold Coast Titans and North Queensland Cowboys on 22 July 2023.

The panel also returned to the vexed discussion of the new stadium at Macquarie Point in Hobart being funded jointly by the Federal Government (about 38% of total cost, the Tasmanian State Government (59%) and to a much lesser extent by the AFL (2.3%).