Alex McKinnon

To be honest it's probably too early to tell the extent of his long term deficits. He underwent surgery quickly which improves chances of recovery. The surgery as well as the injury would still have swelling masking the true extent of the injury. The surgery was likely a fusion and laminectomy. For those that don't know what these are, fusion is the removal of the disc between the C4 and C5 vertebrae and fusing the 2 bones. A laminectomy is the cutting out of the "lamina" which is a bit of bone at the rear of the spinal canal. The removal of this will relieve a lot of pressure on the spinal cord and fingers crossed, allow some sort of improvement to his condition
 
To be honest it's probably too early to tell the extent of his long term deficits. He underwent surgery quickly which improves chances of recovery. The surgery as well as the injury would still have swelling masking the true extent of the injury. The surgery was likely a fusion and laminectomy. For those that don't know what these are, fusion is the removal of the disc between the C4 and C5 vertebrae and fusing the 2 bones. A laminectomy is the cutting out of the "lamina" which is a bit of bone at the rear of the spinal canal. The removal of this will relieve a lot of pressure on the spinal cord and fingers crossed, allow some sort of improvement to his condition

How do you know this Mischa???
 
Hi

The injury to Alex is serious but it is unfortunate the media will write anything as we know with degrees of misinformation.

Only recovery time will tell the full extent of Alex's injury .

Just been advised of an interview on the 7.30 report tonight of another case from a Rugby League tackle.
The interview is with another Alex (Ally Boy) who my wife is friends personally with his fiance' & her mother.

Not a similar case but he has had a long recovery & continues to do so.

All cases are different with these injuries & I'm sure there are many others in the Rugby League community.

Best wishes to Alex McKinnon for a speedy recovery.
 
The Souths (Burrow) will have a banner at the game this week, StGeorge (supporters) are in the process of organising one, HOPEFUL of getting it done on time, they actually wanted to have a banner produced for their next game at Kogarah or WIN...

That's incredible, what a brilliant bunch of supporters the Rabbits and Dragons have. =D>=D>=D>
 
I think Alex has galvanised the whole RL community with this injury.

Not only is it tragic and devastating to Alex and those who know and love him most, he just seemed like a nice bloke going about his life and the game without any fanfare or 'look at moi' mentality so common of some 'stars' in the game these days.

Whilst RL has the propensity to criticise itself, to belittle itself, to tear itself asunder all the time…it also has a wonderful ability to unite in times of need.
 
7 week suspension is one of the worst decisions I've seen in sports.
I agree. The judgement appears to have been made on the effects of the tackle rather then the tackle itself. I can only imagine the pressure the judiciary was under given the amount of airtime this story has had in the media. Kris Inu got 5 weeks for a much worse tackle last year
Richie Faaoso got 8 weeks for 2 spear tackles on GI
 
The Souths (Burrow) will have a banner at the game this week, StGeorge (supporters) are in the process of organising one, HOPEFUL of getting it done on time, they actually wanted to have a banner produced for their next game at Kogarah or WIN...

Can confirm the Dragons banner has been made 3m x 1.5m
was organised and produced within 24hrs, big effort by all involved from the supporters...
 
I think the extent of injury needs to play a part in the suspension decision making process.. The whole reason we have suspensions in this game, is to deter people from breaking the rules and to protect the players safety. If you want to break the rules, you pay a penalty.. if anything, this is accurate and the other suspensions weren't enough.. This poor guys life is turned on its head, and there are rules in place to protect him from this happening. Before anyone starts with the whole 'it's part of the game, he put himself in that position by playing' crap, rules are there to protect, and they were broken. There will never be an exact time frame for suspension, and there will always be debate over every single one because every situation is different, and different supporters will feel differently about their team.. At the end of the day, if you break the rules, you should be dealt with accordingly!
 
Daniel, to further back up your post (which I reckon was really well thought out), the AFL tribunal for example relies on medical reports from club doctors to assist the decision-making process. Eg if the victim was concussed, suffered a laceration, fractured an eye socket etc etc.

The situation with Alex McKinnon is so unique that I think the NRL judiciary probably didn't have a precedent to work with regarding the severity of his injuries. What length of suspension WOULD be suitable in this instance?
 
I think the extent of injury needs to play a part in the suspension decision making process.. At the end of the day, if you break the rules, you should be dealt with accordingly!

The injury shouldn't play a part in the suspension. There are rules and punishments to prevent injury. By charging a player for "foul" play after the player has been injured you aren't treating the cause you are only dealing with the effects.
If you focus on the injury it will mean you are giving the green light to players to go out pick players up turn them upside down and slam them head first into the ground as long as they don't get injured. They need to focus on the action and not leave any dispute by dishing out the same punishment when players do the exact same thing.
Once the judiciary start coming down hard on players who lift players into a dangerous position we might see a stop to it and we hopefully will never see another Alex McKinnon but if they are only going to come down hard on players once they injure another player, players will continue and hopefully we don't but we may see another Alex McKinnon.
Is seven weeks a right level of punishment? Based on previous examples and the amount Alex was lifted it is probably excessive and seems to be based on the injury and not the tackle itself.
 
Disagree, the injury has to play a part to stop players from breaking the rules.. There needs to be a harsh minimum penalty, followed by a process regarding the injury sustained. There needs to be some justice to the person injured, and something extra to stop players doing it..
 
By not taking the injury into account, your giving the players the green light to go 'oh well, dump him on his head, it's all good, doesn't matter if you permanently injure him, you'll just get the same suspension as the other bloke who did it to a player who got up and walked away'...
 
I agree. The judgement appears to have been made on the effects of the tackle rather then the tackle itself. I can only imagine the pressure the judiciary was under given the amount of airtime this story has had in the media. Kris Inu got 5 weeks for a much worse tackle last year
Richie Faaoso got 8 weeks for 2 spear tackles on GI

notice how there both on GI, that grub flips himself to get a penalty, josh reynolds did the same thing to get a penalty on fulltime to beat manly last year

this tackle was a bit different i reckon, but yeah 7 weeks is a joke, 3 wouldve been sufficient.
 
Let's look at it this way...

If this injury hadn't occurred McLean would have probably been looking at a weeks suspension with an early guilty plea.

Might even have just been a penalty on the field.

You can't expect a lengthy suspension to be handed out for what most believe to be an accident.

I have watched the tackle again and again and it still baffles me why Alex McKinnon tucks his head forward just before hitting the ground.

I sense he may having been playing for a penalty and this all went horribly wrong.

In saying that, i'm sure we all wish Alex the best and hopefully a successful recovery.
 
Lets look at it this way........

If i get caught drink driving i might lose my licence for 3 months. If i injure someone while im drink driving im going to be in more trouble. You need to look at the outcome whether it be intentional or not.

From what a saw on twitter last night the NRL asked for 5 weeks for the tackle and 6 weeks for the injury so they definitely took the outcome of the tackle into account.

At the end of the day there is no right answer. The situation is terrible for everyone involved. I really hope the Storm give some extra support to this kid. He deserves it.

I have watched the tackle again and again and it still baffles me why Alex McKinnon tucks his head forward just before hitting the ground.

Heard Dell say on the radio the other day that its the first thing they are taught by their wrestling coaches. Cant blame Alex when that is what he has been taught to do.
 
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