Sport
12 February, 2024
Big heart at home: Twigg, concussion and return
NATHAN Twigg’s football gaze has returned home for season 2024. The star ruckman is back at Loddon Valley club Bears Lagoon Serpentine after a concussion-interrupted two seasons with Boort in the North Central league. His return to football has...
NATHAN Twigg’s football gaze has returned home for season 2024.
The star ruckman is back at Loddon Valley club Bears Lagoon Serpentine after a concussion-interrupted two seasons with Boort in the North Central league.
His return to football has waited longer than the enforced 12-day rule for players knocked out in country Victorian games.
Weeks of CT and MRI scans followed by vestibular rehabilitation therapy since last June were consigned to the history books when Twigg took to Janiember Park for the Bears’ first full-club training run as temperatures skyrocketed to the high 30s on Sunday.
“Everything seems good now ... but I’ve no plans to be running backwards into a pack again,” Twigg said.
“After two lots of concussion in two seasons, it makes you think about being smart on where you run.”
Twigg bounced back quickly after colliding with Charlton’s Rhys Thompson in the 2022 match but says last year’s clash with Sea Lake’s Billy McInnes “was a lot scarier”.
“I had scans in the weeks after and then (fellow Boort player) Matt Chisari suggested vestibular rehabilitation,” the farmer said.
“At that stage I couldn’t put the radio on in the tractor or the ears would hurt and I would be crook in the guts.
“And for months there would be buzzing in the head.”
Enhanced gaze stability can be a benefit of the vestibular rehabilitation therapy treating trauma symptoms including dizziness, vertigo and unsteadiness.
“Everything seems good now although I am still a bit sensitive to sharp noise,” Twigg said.
Players showing signs of concussion have been made to stand out of football for a minimum 12 days under AFL Victoria three-phase guidelines - one or two days of relative rest, a period to allow recovery and a graded return to activity.
But last week, the Australian Institute of Sport released new guidelines for junior and community sport, recommending injured players now stand out of matches for at least 21 days. Players under 19 should be symptom free for 14 days before starting contact training. For adults, the AIS says it should 10 days.
Twigg said he believed the 21-day mandatory break after injury “would be a good thing”.
He also said players knew within themselves how they were recovering. “Last year I gave it a couple of weeks and I was still not right,” he said.
Twigg’s return to Serpentine, the club where he has played most of his 245 games since starting as a junior in 2009 - Boort also had the talented ruckman for a few seasons as a youngster - has family focus too.
His father Ross, who died in 2009, had been part of the Bears’ 1994 premiership side.
“It’s 30 years since dad was in that flag-winning team ... a good time to come back home.”
“We’ve picked up some good players this season,” said the unassuming Twigg who had been an early favourite for the North Central’s Feeny Medal until his season was cut short
BEARS BOLSTER RANKS
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