When Tom Raudonikis coached Wests in the mid-1990s, he discovered a novel way of motivating his team. He was particularly concerned that the Magpies, after having made the finals the previous year, were languishing near the bottom of the ladder.

Tom was shown reams of statistics on the number of players used, metres gained, tackles, try assists, time in possession and line breaks, but none of it really offered an explanation for the team's poor form. So he asked the club doctor for a report on the number of stitches. ''It was something like 76 stitches in the good year and 24 in the shit year,'' he said. ''It showed me they weren't having a go and putting their heads in places where it was a bit dangerous.''

He wasn't advocating violence. After all, if he was to tell his players to go the knuckle, it would mean more stitches to the opposition, not his own team. No, he was saying they weren't putting their bodies on the line in the sense of risking a size 16 boot when diving for the loose ball, clashing heads when competing for the ball in the air, going over the top in a tackle to stop an offload or charging the kicker.

It's relevant to the present debate on concussion, sparked by a United States study on NFL players and the long-term effects of head injuries.

The US study was flawed in the sense it took no account of lifestyle and, in the absence of testimony from deceased former footballers, relied on information from wives and family members. It did not say whether the past players whose brain autopsies had revealed significant damage were heavy drinkers or drug users.

Doctors will tell you the classic symptoms of concussion are headaches, loss of memory, nausea and vomiting. Ask 20-year-olds how they feel the morning after a night on the grog and they'll say: ''I've got a headache, I can't remember when I got home, I feel sick and I just had a spew.''

So, are the millions of young adults who drink heavily each weekend doing as much damage to their brains as the footballer who has suffered four concussions in a career? And were those NFL footballers big drinkers?

The problem with concussion is there is no scan available of living people that shows the effects of head knocks. Doctors must rely on brain autopsies.

NRL players who have been concussed in a match cannot play the following week unless they pass CogSport, a type of card game which tests reflexes and memory. Doctors can compare results from pre-season testing but one Origin player recorded a poor result before a tackle had been made. It was not as if he was in a state of perpetual concussion. He simply thought the cards presented were to be used for a parlour-type game of grab, or fish, or old maid.

According to the Roosters' chief medical officer, John Orchard, the US study on NFL footballers ''created more problems than it has solved'' but conceded it had forced the NRL to adopt a more conservative stance. ''You won't see a [wobbly footed] Dallas Johnson in Origin again [returning after a heavy knock], or a player taken off on the medicab returning,'' he said. ''But if we shifted to a position of zero tolerance of head knocks where we punished accidental clashes, there would be 30-40 penalties a game. If you ruled no one played after a concussion, it would be too hard a line. Doctors want a hard line but they want more research done. It could be that one in a 100 get long-term effects of concussion, but we don't know who that one in a 100 is. It's OK for a player who is dizzy for five seconds to continue playing, but is he the one who will have long-term problems?''

Unfortunately, some NRL coaches are using the concussion controversy for their own ends. Newcastle coach Wayne Bennett has declared he will encourage his players to stay down after an opponent has made contact with their head, to attract a penalty via the video referee's review. Bennett made the comment following a game against the Cowboys, the NRL team which probably uses this ruse the most. However, the Knights had a couple of players who were prone to this subterfuge well before the Cowboys match, including centre Junior Sa'u.

A couple of years ago, Storm coach Craig Bellamy offered his players a vote on whether to feign injury to win a penalty. To a man, they rejected it, some remembering the advice of their fathers: ''Never show them you're hurt.''

Yet if all players took this to the extreme, they would be denying medical help when they are genuinely injured.

The NRL is examining how to increase the number of advertisements inserts per game to win a richer broadcasting contract.

If it opportunistically instructed referees to stop the clock every time a player went down, it would be counter-productive. Fans are attracted to league because of its continuity and the toughness of its players.

Games are won because, as Raudonikis said, players sometimes have to put their head where ordinary mortals fear to tread.