IT IS 40 years since Footscray’s Neil Sachse collided front-on with Fitzroy’s Kevin O’Keeffe.
The impact destroyed two of his vertebrae and ruined his spinal cord, leaving him a quadriplegic; Sachse remembers every detail.
He remembers not being able to get up to take his free kick, remembers asking for his boots to be taken off and remembers thinking he was in pretty bad shape when told they had already been removed.
He also remembers how little time there was to react to the fast-approaching O’Keeffe from when he gathered the ball to impact.
“I saw it in slow motion the other day and Geoff Jennings was running past – perhaps I could have handballed it out to him,” Sachse asked.
“Even if I think about it now I don’t know where else I could have gone because it was only about two steps; I don’t even know whether I would have had time to fall down.”
A premiership player with North Adelaide, Sachse was the Bulldogs’ star recruit in 1975. His accident ended a promising VFL career after just two games, but sparked a campaign to raise spinal injury awareness.
Sachse believes prevention starts with education. The impact that caused his injury was unavoidable, but he said modern players should be taught to avoid situations that raise the risk of spinal injury.
In the wider community, too, education is key to future prevention and the latest program rolled out by the Neil Sachse Foundation aims to teach them young.
Videos that explain spinal injury and identify dangerous situations as well as ways to treat a potential victim are targeted at primary and secondary students.
The foundation is also trying to raise $1million for a three-year research project into a new imaging system that would allow doctors to see in real time a three-dimensional scan of a spinal injury.
“Testing facilities for spinal cord injury hasn’t changed since I had my accident; they still use feel and pinprick and movement,” he said.
“It’s important we change the way a spinal injury is diagnosed so the injury is better treated to improve outcomes.”
Sachse has never been one to dwell on the past – he lives for the future. But he thanked the Bulldogs and sporting community who helped him and his family after his accident.
“Their generosity to underpin my family was a catalyst for why I am here today,” he said.
TO HELP FUND THE NEIL SACHSE FOUNDATION, SMS ‘HELP’ TO 0439 222 777.
This story appears in the round two edition of the AFL Record, available at all grounds.
