The University Blacks Football Club has been proud to be part of a ground-breaking and valuable concussion study project; conducted by Monash University and overseen by former Club Captain, Dan Costello. Additional research will continue for 2021, and we thank the team led by Dr. Stuart McDonald, Associate Professor Sandy Shultz, and Dr. Dan Costello for their outstanding work and for partnering with the University Blacks during this study.
The research project was a sizable investment of time by a large majority of the Blacks playing group across multiple seasons. Between 100-200 players at the Blacks took part in the study, beginning in 2017. 28 players provided further data following their own concussions and head knocks throughout each season, which when compared against their baseline results in pre-season, were used to make comparisons and evidence-based conclusions. Follow-up sessions undertaken by our players included a series of memory tests, MRI scans, and many blood tests.
Further information can be found in this article, as it was initially covered by the ABC a couple of weeks ago.
The commitment by our playing group to dedicate themselves to the study was truly remarkable, and goes to show the degree to which our club culture encourages individuals at the Blacks to make positive impacts in our community.
In addition to the investment of time by our playing group, several Blacks players had a significant impact on the success of the study as part of their Undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne. Joel Ernest (80 games, recently played with Richmond in the VFL in 2018/2019) was responsible for a large amount of the day-to-day operations of study in 2017, who was then followed up by Joshua Kimpton and William O'Brien in subsequent seasons. Additionally, Will has taken the project on further to form a large part of his PhD submission in his medical studies.
Joel, Josh and Will all conducted themselves with a high degree of professionalism and made sure that the Blacks association with the study was underlined with consistency and dedication, such as were the high standards required of such an evidence-based study. Furthermore, veterans Lachlan Huntington and Bede Mahon volunteered their own time to collect blood samples at different times across the study's duration to assist in the, at times, exhausting data-gathering nature of the project.
The Club would like to thank all players who took part in the study, and especially wishes to highlight the efforts of players who invested large amounts of their own time to run the operations of the study and collect data over the extended period of time.