"You just can't keep taking impact to the brain." | First Thoughts - Kingy's advice for Tom Liberatore (20.04.26)

8.468 - 33.951 Unknown

It is fireball. Nick Dacos, Tom Morris, still to come on the program. Your first thoughts, 043-98-11-16. Let me get your thoughts on Libba because the timeline of his concussions, round seven, 2023, was concussed against Fremantle round 22 in that same year against Hawthorne in round six of 24. He collapsed in the center square against Essendon with no one around him.

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And round eight, 2024, he sustained a head knock against Hawthorne. It's happened again, Kingy. For those that missed first crack last night, what's your message?

41.961 - 60.465 Kingy

I just said if I had half an hour with Libra, I'd say, mate, walk away. You've got another 50, 60 years of your life to come. You just can't keep taking impact to the brain. And we're learning more and more about it, I think. I know we're going to get to the dogs in a moment. I don't see the dogs winning it this year.

65.694 - 85.432 Kingy

They're just not there. So if they don't win it this year, would they even go with Libba next year? Would the club even put him back on the list? Would he be a major player for them? I just think it's a time to say, right, you know what? I've got to put myself first. So I'm hoping that that is the decision that he comes to.

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If it's, if he doesn't come to that decision and it's really difficult for some people to come to that decision, we understand that not easy. Should someone come to that decision for him?

96.464 - 114.969 Kingy

I don't think you'd have to talk him around. Yeah. It would, it would have to be his call in the end, but I think he needs some strong people around him that are prepared to say, Hey mate, we love you and this is what needs to happen. He could easily come back and play and probably be a serviceable player. But you're just talking about the concussion.

138.481 - 163.249 Unknown

He was... Having an awful game, there's no doubt about that. Some of his stuff yesterday was hard to explain, but then you go through the game and it's really difficult to find an incident where it looked as though he had a concussion, which is what the club reported on, although they couldn't point to an incident. So the investigation into that one for his long-term health

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And the future of him in the game as well needs to be taken very, very seriously because if you're getting concussed from very minor incidents and ones that aren't even obvious, then there's a serious issue for him. So that's one that the Ds need to thoroughly investigate. I'd be surprised if he plays again for a long, long time.

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He's going to have to have a lot of time to recuperate and get himself together.