The idea that we send our children out regularly to do battle is terrifying. They have no protection. When they are wounded, we encourage them to get back up again and go into the fray. And then they get wounded again and again and again.

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But that's what happens when we let them play contact sports.

If you think I'm exaggerating, I bring you 25 year old rugby league player Eli Katoa, Melbourne Storm's star second rower. He suffered three head knocks in the space of 90 minutes while playing for Tonga against New Zealand in the Pacific Cup in Auckland. Three head knocks. Three head knocks in 90 minutes. He played on after the first one. He played on after the second one. Then he had a seizure and ended up with surgery for a brain bleed.

Sure. I hear you say. He's a professional. But I'm not sure we should even be sending out professionals to acquire brain injuries, from which they may never recover.

If I was the prime minister, I'd probably ban contact sports. I've watched kids' rugby on the sidelines and no one really seems to have any idea about what constitutes a serious injury. We get used to the idea of calling it concussion, which sounds harmless. It's anything but harmless.

I'm only a little bit of a party pooper - and my goodness, I've loved rugby league since I was a girl but I didn't recognise that it does terrible things to people's brains. Boomph. Thwack. Thud. Crack.

Nearly three years ago, a Queensland rehabilitation physician gave evidence at one of those parliamentary committees where useful ideas get aired all the time (but sometimes never get more than an airing)

Benjamin Chen, a Queensland rehabilitation physician, made the points everyone makes: safety's important, sport is part of Australia's social fabric, we enjoy the benefits of sport. But he said: "The challenge is to recognise the unintended, darker consequences of contact sports and the hidden toll that they may exact on the player and their loved ones."

Which hardly anyone does. Concussion knocks around more than your head: reduced academic and/or........

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