“Cricket is a potentially dangerous game: it involves a heavy, hard ball being speared towards a batter from a relatively short distance at great speed. It is a testament to the skill and courage of those who play the game at the highest level that more incidents don’t occur. Still, safeguards are essential if death and injury is to be minimised.“
– NSW State Coroner, Inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes

The difficult questions are the ones that demand answers. For example, what on earth passes for functional concussion protocols inside the Tongan Rugby League set-up? Whatever the NRL’s investigation into the events that left Eli Katoa in hospital with brain bleeding uncovers, the sight of a staffer attempting to hold the Tonga forward’s head up – likely as his consciousness ebbed away – as he sat on the bench was sickening.

After three serious head knocks across the warm-up and match, Katoa – who isn’t certain to play the game again – should not have been left so hopelessly exposed. Players won’t voluntarily self-administer head impact assessments. Heads should roll. Katoa’s should never have been one of them.

However, there aren’t many sports that don’t carry an element of danger. Equestrianism, AFL, baseball, track cycling and swimming each carry various and inherent risks, which participants can’t hope to entirely divorce themselves from.

When the NSW State Coroner delivered his findings in November 2016 regarding the dreadfully sad death of Australian Test cricketer Phillip Hughes, the Coroner made specific recommendations, including that Cricket Australia continue its collaborative research, development and testing to identify neck protectors that can be mandated for use by batters in at least all first-class cricket matches.

It’s easy to jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts. We don’t know the facts of Katoa’s case, though the aftermath is plain. In the same vein, one can opine about what would have made a difference to the awful situation involving........

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