COLLINGWOOD midfielder Brit Bonnici has spoken about the frightening effects of repeated concussions, which resulted in the AFL Women’s star suffering a temporary brain injury.
The 21-year-old suffered between five and eight concussions (the exact number is unclear) in 2015. She spent time in hospital and was forced to have a full year away from football as part of her recovery.
"Each concussion felt different and they all affected me in different ways," Bonnici told playersvoice.com.au.
"After being knocked out in one game, I remember coming to [consciousness] in hospital and just being so disoriented.
"The last thing I could remember was running around on the footy field playing for my club, St Kilda Sharks (in the VFLW). Then I was somewhere different, and everything felt off.
"My mum was there beside me, and I kept saying to her, 'I need to get back out there, I need to get back out there'. And she was trying to calm me down, telling me, 'It's fine Brit, the game's over'."
Bonnici is now a star on the rise, making a name for herself as an aggressive and effective tagger who is capable of winning plenty of the ball while limiting her opponent.
Elected vice-captain for the now-completed 2018 season despite her tender age, she averaged 11 disposals, keeping the competition's eventual best and fairest Emma Kearney to just 13 when the pair came head to head in round five.
Bonnici described failing concussion tests by forgetting the date, where she was and even her own name.
"What I didn't understand is how concussion symptoms can be reoccurring. They can seemingly go away and then reappear days later. So, when I had a headache at the end of the following week, I didn't connect the dots and realise it was a lingering side-effect," she said.
"Now I know that it wasn't just a headache. It was a sign that my brain hadn't fully healed.
"But when you're young, you feel like you're invincible. I'd convinced myself that going to hospital was just a precaution and, as the symptoms alleviated, I was ready to get back out on the paddock. And at the same time, no one called me out on that."
The frequency of Bonnici's concussions increased, with a few weeks' gap between each one. Her symptoms, including dizziness, blurry vision and sensitivity to light, worsened.
It cumulated in a collapse when Bonnici was at her grandparents' house, which led to a host of CAT scans and an EEG (electroencephalogram) test, which monitors the way the brain reacts to stimulation like music.
"That generated an image of my brain on a screen and seeing that was the most confronting part of it all," Bonnici said.
"It put everything into perspective for me because I could see all the activity going off and it made me appreciate just how vital and complex the brain is.
"That's when I knew this wasn't just about footy anymore. This could affect the rest of my life in a really big way.
"When we got the results back, the doctor explained it to me like this: The brain is like a muscle, and if you hurt it and don't let it recover and then hurt it again, the damage will only get worse and worse. My brain had been damaged."
She said her friends and family started treating her differently, when she just wanted life to go on as normal.
"All of a sudden, I wasn't just a normal girl who went to school and played footy. I became 'the girl with the brain injury', and that's someone I never wanted to be. But that's how people would talk about me and there was a stigma attached to it," she said.
Bonnici kisses her nephew after the first ever AFLW game. Picture: AFL Photos
Bonnici had to work at re-focusing her eyes and reducing her sensitivity to light, as well as taking things at a gentler pace to avoid dizziness.
"There was a lot of trial and error with different exercises and waiting to see how I would react when I went back for scans to see what progress I'd made," she wrote.
"The specialist showed me how to understand the imaging. That was important because as I got better, I could watch as the parts of my brain where there hadn't been much activity before they started to light up again. That was exciting."
The announcement of the AFLW competition gave Bonnici the motivation to work towards a recovery.
"I was scared that I was about to watch everyone else live out the dream I'd had since I was a little girl," she said.
"Eventually, I was allowed to do contact sessions on one condition – I was going to start wearing headgear.
"Some people doubted whether it would help, but for me, it was simple. If headgear gave my brain even just a tiny bit more protection, it would be worth it. That could be the difference between me suffering another serious injury or staying healthy."
When Bonnici returned to playing a year after her last concussion, all her Sharks teammates offered to don helmets as well as a show of support.
A Vic Metro captain at under-18 level, she was drafted by Collingwood with pick 27 in the 2016 NAB AFLW Draft, just three matches into her comeback.
"I've been able to play a role in something historic (AFLW), but things could have turned out so differently for me. That's why I still wear headgear," she said.
"It's not just about protection anymore. It's about raising awareness and getting people talking. Hopefully, it motivates them to get educated on how to detect, monitor and treat concussion."
Bonnici is using her experience with concussion to work with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne to promote the Headcheck app, which was developed in conjunction with the AFL. The app is aimed at parents of children and adolescents, as those age groups can take longer to recover from concussions.
"Every footy player, parent, trainer and coach can benefit from using the app. It helps users identify the signs and severity of a concussion, advise when medical attention is required and then how to manage the recovery process as well," she said.
