Ballarat football great Alan "Dizzy" Lynch will donate his brain upon death to help specialists better understand the impacts of concussion.
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In an exclusive interview with The Courier, the 65-year-old estimated that he suffered the common football brain injury on 15-20 separate occasions and detailed a couple of incidents that required time in hospital.
The revelations come after the impacts of head injury have become a priority, with some calling for vital rule changes to protect players.
Mr Lynch, who played seven Victorian Football League games with Richmond and Footscray, now struggles to hold conversations and battles with short-term memory loss.
The Courier reporter Tim O'Connor sat down with Lynch on Friday morning. Here is Lynch's story...
Jenny Bromley has known her husband Alan Lynch for the past 30 years and says the last two have seen a major decline in his heath.
Bromley believes numerous concussions sustained across a long and successful football career have contributed to Lynch's battles, which include short-term memory loss and a difficulty with conversation.
The man known as Dizzy is aware of his decline and opened up to The Courier about his struggles.
He estimated he'd sustained about 15-20 concussions through his career, which included seven games in the Victorian Football League with Richmond and Footscray.
WATCH ALAN'S SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WITH THE COURIER
"You might answer the quiz questions alright, but keeping a conversation going and things like that - which might be a bit of new ground that you are talking about - that might stop you in your tracks a bit," Lynch said.
"You just slow up a bit and you want a bit of think music. But you want to get on with the conversation with the people that are involved with you."
Lynch was critical of the sling-style tackling method, which has contributed to many footballers suffering concussion due to their head contacting the ground.
"I think you could wipe quite a few shoulder injuries and concussions would be downgraded if people were just able to do their tackling from the hips going down instead of the sling tackle," he said.
Lynch, who was playing coach for two of North Ballarat's premierships during the early 1980s and won a Henderson Medal with Beaufort, also competed as a successful runner and is a Stawell Athletic Club Hall of Fame legend.
The 65-year-old has spent time discussing his condition with AFL player agent and concussion campaigner Peter Jess.
Jess said he had been involved in the testing of more than 100 footballers who have suffered concussion and believed the evidence showed the same structural brain damage occurred to both the elite and sub-elite players. He has called on changes to the female game to try and avoid concussions occurring to girls and women.
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