Wexford hurler Jack O'Connor stands for a portrait during the launch of UPMC Concussion Baseline Testing Programme at Croke Park in Dublin.
By John Harrington
Wexford hurler, Jack O’Connor, believes inter-county players will benefit a lot from the National Concussion Testing Programme that was launched this week by UPMC, the GAA, and the GPA.
The initiative will cover football, hurling, and camogie and will deliver concussion baseline testing to players across all codes in every county with the goal of rapidly diagnosing and treating concussions in players.
O’Connor knows from personal experience that a concussion injury can be more serious that a player might imagine at the time, so is enthusiastic about the new testing programme.
“It’s very important,” he told GAA.ie. “I think over the last four or five years I've started to become a bit more aware of concussion because of the focus the GAA and the GPA put on it. And I suppose learning from what's gone on in rugby, that's when you'd really become aware of it.
“My own experience, I did have one concussion in a club game two years ago. My memory of it is that I hit the ground and got straight back up again. But when I looked back on the tape I was actually laying out on the ground for about 30 seconds to a minute kind of unknown to myself.
“That was the first time that I really noticed that if you do get a knock like that you need to monitor your symptoms. What they're rolling out to all the counties now, we actually started last year with Wexford. We were one of the pilot teams so we were all tested and it was interesting learning about what that was and what it was going to be used for.
“Basically they take a baseline reading. You do a test on a mix of memory and coordination on an iPad and they use that information then if you do suffer a concussion. You retest and it will show how far off from your baseline you are so they can judge what the status of your concussion is and when you can or should return to training or playing.”
O’Connor believes the biggest benefit about the baseline testing programme is that it will take the responsibility of making a judgement call on concussion away from both the players and team management.
Jack O'Connor of Wexford in action against John Conlon of Clare during the 2022 GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final match between Clare and Wexford at the FBD Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary.
Players who might be reluctant to admit to concussion symptoms to a manager for fear of slipping down the pecking order now won’t have that option available to them, and management will know if a player is still symptomatic and so shouldn’t be considered for selection.
“Absolutely, I think all players would be like that in the sense that I don't want to show a little bit of weakness or I don't want to have an excuse,” says O’Connor.
“It's okay if you're not feeling right after a knock and this tool can be used to say, well, there is something wrong. It should always be taken out of a player's hands because a player will more often than not tell you that they're okay. So something like this is a non-biased tool that will indicate whether you're okay or not.”
O’Connor admitted Wexford’s exit from the 2022 All-Ireland SHC championship at the hands of Clare when they let slip a six point lead in the final 10 minutes was tough to take.
But he’s hopeful they can learn from the experience and make necessary improvements in order to challenge for silverware in 2023.
“It did take a while to get over that one. But I guess great teams can really finish out a game. Even if you look at the All-Ireland, all the questions that Kilkenny asked Limerick, they still managed to get over the line by two points.
“We got to the 64th minute but then a few of their players really stood up and pulled them away. We did pick up a few injuries late in the game with the two Recks going off and that didn't help. But, again, that's the cards that the manager is dealt so as a team of players and management we have to deal with that and unfortunately we do enough to get over the line.
“We'll still take confidence from the steps we made last year and hopefully we can add on another layer to progress on this year again.
“It’s around the consistency piece where we need to improve. Earlier in that campaign we drew with Westmeath and if we had of gotten over Westmeath and beaten Kilkenny we would have been in a Leinster Final.
“So, it's about consistency and trying to perform at a high level from game to game. I suppose from 2019 we won the Leinster Final and got to the All-Ireland semi-final, we haven't really gotten back there yet. So hopefully we can sharpen up this year and maybe get back to the Leinster Final and push on to the All-Ireland Final hopefully.”
