Pucovski’s bad news is actually good news
By Greg Baum
Right now, the Will Pucovski story is a tragedy, as much as that word can be used about sport. In time, it will be reviewed as a triumph.
Reportedly medically retired, Pucovski joins a list of sportspeople, mostly footballers, who have not so much come to their senses as chosen or been jolted into keeping them.
Will Pucovski is felled by a short ball from Tasmanian quick bowler Riley Meredith earlier this year.Credit: cricket.com.au
It’s sad that the list is ever-growing, but good that there is a list. Adding to it this year are a Brownlow Medal place-getter, Angus Brayshaw, a Collingwood premiership player, Nathan Murphy, and now the precocious Pucovski. Materially, each had much to lose by quitting, but perhaps even more to lose in terms of wellbeing by persevering.
Gradually, a model is emerging. Since it is impossible to make most of the sports we love foolproof, the only evident way forward is to make the protocols surrounding concussion as stringent as they can be without destroying the essence of the sports – we’re far from there yet – invest more in research and education, and then proceed scrupulously on a case-by-case basis.
The quantum becomes the point. As the list grows in length and profile, it begins to solidify into a weight of food for thought. Former Greater Western Sydney captain Phil Davis is one of the more erudite ex-footballers now plying the media trade (the rimless glasses help).
“I think I had 10 surgeries, multiple shoulders, a couple of knees, and I’m not worried about any of that as I get older,” Davis said on Footy Classified this week. “I’m only worried about the three concussions I had.”
Angus Brayshaw’s last concussion, in the 2023 qualifying final.Credit: Paul Rovere
His concern will trigger others’. So it is that a bad thing can also act as a good thing.
It’s easy and important to extend sympathy to the players. It must be torturous to have a gift as rare as theirs and find the outlet for it boarded up. Pucovski is this figure in apotheosis. Everything about him screamed long-term Test cricketer. As it turns out, it will remain Test, singular. Vocationally, he is dying not just with the music in him, but virtually his whole opus.
Pucovski’s case is a threshold. His distinction, if you like, is that his sport, though plainly dangerous in its own way, is non-contact. Some of the incidents on his double-figure catalogue of concussions were as glancing as a stolen kiss. This is true also of some footballers on the list; their game is inherently rugged, but often it is relatively innocent contact that does the damage.
What has become apparent is that some athletes, through no fault of their own, are not physiologically fit for their games. In contrast, Justin Langer in his time was struck in the head as often as Pucovski, played 105 Tests and later coached Australia with no lasting deleterious effects.
Justin Langer after a blow to the head in Johannesburg in 2006.Credit: Getty Images
Until now, sports have tended to gloss over an accumulation of concussions in a susceptible player in the perhaps medically inspired hope that a solution will be found that will obviate further instances. What the Pucovski case teaches is that a more conservative approach is imperative from now on.
Administrators are alert. Doubtlessly their minds are being gnawed at by the threat of large-scale legal redress for debilitated players down the track. You can be certain the sports that can afford it are salting away money already, some for players, some for lawyers. So be it. Per Samuel Johnson, Pucovski’s retirement will further concentrate their minds wonderfully.
Bit by bit, sports’ mindsets will change. Angus Brayshaw was reported to have been distraught when he had to give up footy at 28. It is not hard to imagine that Pucovski is just as bereft. He’s just 26, on the threshold of what would have been his prime years.
But here’s another way of looking at it: Pucovski was a talented and personable young man with a bright future ahead of him.
He still is.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.