Jake Friend's future to be decided on Monday

[Thirteen]

Not that they would publicly admit it but does anyone on here think with Keary being out for the season it may have an influence on what Friend & Cordner do for 2021 ?

No Mate they are footballers and just want to play football. It's what they love to do. They are also decent fellas who want to do the right thing by the club.

[Mad_Rabid_Rooster]

I wish Jake all the very best. I would be happy to see him play once again, but not at the expense of his health and wellbeing. It can be a long time outside of/post footy.

I agree in that I wouldn't be surprised if he calls it a day. He has outside interests to fall back on, and not having any pressure to continue playing would make a difference I would imagine.

[Bruce 38-0]

I was hoping if we were travelling ok he would come back later in the season. I know everyone at the Club is so positive post Kez’s injury but I wonder if that will play a role in the decision? Or will he feel with Sam taking longer to get back out there that he wants to play again if he’s ok sooner rather than later?

Roll on Monday or mid week until we find out.

[Johnny73]

Three grand final wins, played for both state and country. He’s given more to the club, to the point of being hospitalised, he’s done enough.

[ism22]

for some strange reason , i think your right. he seems to have a career outside rl maybe moreso then cords. whilst im pretty 50/50 , i would be titally unsurprised if he was to pull the pin .

Yeah doesn't he have a cafe and a plumbing business?

Since when has Robbo given a shit about what the league thinks?

If they aren't right medically speaking, they wont play. If they are right medically speaking, they will.

End of story.

I think Robbo's concern is that there's no settled medical opinion on this and the NRL doesn't really have any guidelines on when you can medically retire somebody based on concussion.

Like... say they do a brain scan and a guy who has been badly concussed 10+ times has a healthy brain... can he be medically retired on the basis that he fears there could be long-term damage from all the head knocks, regardless of what the brain scan says?

TBH since there are serious concerns, I sway towards saying we should be medically retiring both of them. I wanna keep them and I want them on the park for us, but if it were my brain and I were coming to the end of my footy career (having banked $$$ and played for Australia) then I'd call it a day if there were any unanswered questions about the risks.

I assume both are set for life financially BTW? Possibly a concern there as both have taken unders for the benefit of our club (I feel both are on about ~$500-600k rather than $1m). Also Friend's on a year-by-year contract arrangement. Not saying either are poor but I'd like to see us being able to offer some kind of a golden handshake arrangement where they both pocket say ~$2 mil each before parting ways... to cover for lost income. Maybe their insurance can do that though? (Dunno their arrangements).

[King Salvo]

Yeah doesn't he have a cafe and a plumbing business?



I think Robbo's concern is that there's no settled medical opinion on this and the NRL doesn't really have any guidelines on when you can medically retire somebody based on concussion.

Like... say they do a brain scan and a guy who has been badly concussed 10+ times has a healthy brain... can he be medically retired on the basis that he fears there could be long-term damage from all the head knocks, regardless of what the brain scan says?

TBH since there are serious concerns, I sway towards saying we should be medically retiring both of them. I wanna keep them and I want them on the park for us, but if it were my brain and I were coming to the end of my footy career (having banked $$$ and played for Australia) then I'd call it a day if there were any unanswered questions about the risks.

I assume both are set for life financially BTW? Possibly a concern there as both have taken unders for the benefit of our club (I feel both are on about ~$500-600k rather than $1m). Also Friend's on a year-by-year contract arrangement. Not saying either are poor but I'd like to see us being able to offer some kind of a golden handshake arrangement where they both pocket say ~$2 mil each before parting ways... to cover for lost income. Maybe their insurance can do that though? (Dunno their arrangements).

Any golden handshake arrangements as you describe would not be approved and would not be exempt from the cap.

Player Medical retirement payments are negotiated between the club and the insurance company and separate to any NRL decision to approve or not approve medical retirements- NRL has to approve medical retirements for the payout to be exempt from the cap whether paid by the Insurance company or the Club. The insurance company can deny the claim so the club may need to pay this but if the NRL has approved the medical retirement any payment is exempt from the cap.

You might remember Anthony Whatmough's medical retirement when playing for Parramatta as the insurer denied the claim saying retirement was a result of “symptomatic, pre-existing degenerative changes” to left knee. Parramatta took the insurer to court and the parties (Parramatta and the insurer) agreed to pay 50% each of the contract- took about 2 years or so to settle this - so not a quick process when dealing with insurance companies.

The sticking point for any medical retirement is the following NRL Criteria- Insurance companies would have their own criteria and conditions for any claim payouts and denying them

"Player had no similar injury or medical condition to that area of the body that either has or could reasonably be predicted medically to lead to a degenerative condition of that area of the body prior to signing his last NRL contract"

Does this include concussions and are concussions an injury or medical condition or could be proved to lead to a degenerative condition of that area of the body (head) - be many years to find that out well after the player has officially retired.

[Johnny Tobin]

Cords and Friend take up a lot of our cap. A decision needs to be made pronto.

[rented tracksuit]

For a bloke who has given his all for our colours I really hope he’s holding up alright.

Got a lot of love for this guy, has copped a lot on here over the course of his career but I doubt we’ve had a tougher player. Maybe plenty his equal but for a small guy, playing the position he does in the way that he does he deserves nothing but the best treatment from the club for his future.

Well said.

[Spirit of 66]

In his interview yesterday, after talking about Friend and the decision that would be made on Monday, Robbo started talking about how paranoid clubs were about the Roosters getting cap relief. I think that is a pretty good indication that we might have seen Jake's last game.

[Johnny Brass]

I raised my concerns about the amount of head knocks Jake had copped at the end of last year and how concussions become prevalent in players who have suffered from them before.
The way sport is heading I think we will see a lot more athletes heading towards early retirements from these cases.