Any possibility he'll take action against anyone? Flower even? Or am I reading too much into it? If he didn't have symptoms before the GF and does now it looks bad.

They would have to show a causal link between that incident and the symptoms he is suffering from now. It could be tricky.

Why? He'd no doubt have medical records showing he was fine before and medical records showing he was injured afterwards. He would surely have gone for assessment after the Grand Final as a precaution as well, which would state the injuries evident at the time. I'm not saying he would persue Flower/SL/Wigan/Saints/RL, but it does seem plausible.

He's spent 13 years as a professional in the premier collision sport on the planet. Demonstrating that Flower's punches were what caused his condition is likely to be difficult.

Where there's blame, there's a claim. If I was Flower, or Wigan, I would be very worried, this is going to hang over them for years. I would also suggest that the big money lawyers will have Wane in their sights. The bad news for them is that Lance is retiring to the U.S., he is going to be bombarded by ambulance chasers, particularly on the back of the NFL cases.

The original post is the issue though. All the evidence I've seen points to the problem being due to cumulative effects rather than one-offs. IIRC smaller knocks can be the worst, because players won't necessarily show any symptoms but have suffered bruising/swelling of the brain. As a result they aren't taken off the field as they nowadays are when clearly concussed, and take more hits to an already bruised brain.

As an aside, this is the sole reason why shoulder charges were banned. RL would indeed have found itself in deep legal poop if the sport continued to not just condone but glorify shoulder charges. The NRL saw the future issues arising from the NFL and banned shoulder charges almost overnight as a result.

You can defend your sport being tough, contact etc and that players are aware of general physical danger. But if the prosecution for an ex-player (or even worse a whole bunch of them) cracked open a highlights reel of RL shoulder charge 'big hits' together with commentators having verbal orgasms, crowds cheering' the 'tackling' player being high-fived by teammates whilst his opponent is either unconscious or staggering around on jelly legs and the ref waving play on, it would be pretty hard to explain to a court (most likely not containing RL fans) how the sport had really fulfilled its duty of care to players.

Legal teams are a bit smarter these days, medical evidence and player intent to injure are taken on board in a more serious manner.
I,m sure the Smith v Stankavitch case or the Newton v Long assault would have had a different outcome if it was dealt with today.

You can definitely define the likely age of brain injuries. It was on 'Bones' last night. And that guy had been through an industrial mincing machine.

Hopefully this is all a non-issue. Hopefully Lance will be fine and not have any long term problems.

Once you accept that a sport has a duty of care to players you really do become hostage to the next round of legal one-upmanship. I mean, suing the sport over a stress-fracture of the toenail sounds incredibly unlikely - not to mention silly. But if you look at it as the furthest possible milestone in a series of consecutive legal challenges which move the bar incrementally forward from cases we deem "serious" today it suddenly becomes not so outlandish an end-result.

As far as I know, SL club Dr's have been reporting Head injuries/concussion to the RFL (paper based) since SL was started. The event itself, the injury, the environment, the weather, state of the pitch etc. Thats an awful lot of good data which is sitting there at Red hall.

Which their natural instincts will be telling them not to share.

It won't be the RFL sued it will be individual clubs or even coaches. There's been the rule about players with signs of concussion not being allowed to play for 2 weeks and the rule change this year with on field assessment and players not being allowed back. As medical evidence has become more accepted on the issue then the RFL have adapted. Maybe not particularly quickly, but certainly more than other sports.

There's more of an issue with clubs and coaches making a player return to the field or playing with signs of concussion, possibly even fudging results to allow it. That's not the RFL

I think the Wane video may well end up getting Flower off the hook. The way that he sent out his players, means that the vicarious liability lies firmly with the club, and not the individual players, who were only doing what the club encouraged them to do.

very handy for a solicitor as the club (and chairman) have alot more money then the player in question