It’s the last 30 seconds of a WA Football League match in 2017.
Midfielder Brendan Verrier dodges two players as the ball bounces out from the scrum.
A video clip remains of the seconds that follow, but it was years until Brendan could watch it.
Brendan is slammed to the ground, in a move that now gets AFL players suspended for rough conduct.
“He came crashing in and slung tackled me,” Brendan says.
His head smashes on the grass, and for a moment, his body goes limp.
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He feels “a bit out of it”, but not wanting to look weak and lose his spot on the team, gets back up and joins the post-match partying.
Growing up in a ‘footy world’
Encouraged by his family from an early age, Brendan excelled at the sport, and, by the time he was 23, the fast-paced midfielder was making headway towards his dream of playing in the AFL.
“I was competitive, and I wanted to get the best out of myself,” he says.
Chasing after his brother, who had recently been drafted by an AFL team, Brendan earned a reputation in the WAFL as a shining star at the South Fremantle Football Club, which had become like a second family through his teenage years.
“Footy was my identity,” he says.
A downward spiral
Brendan suffered further concussions in the weeks that followed the initial hit in 2017, and by the time he realised his brain wasn’t working properly, it was almost too late.
He was experiencing acute vertigo, fatigue and blurred vision.
At the time, he didn’t know about Second Impact Syndrome, when a second head injury is sustained before the first concussion has healed, resulting in increased brain swelling.
“It felt like I was out of my body,” Brendan says.
The battle playing out in his brain became too much to bear, and with no-one able to say if or when his condition would improve, his mental health began to slip, and he contemplated taking his life.
“But I remember having a little angel on my right shoulder saying, ‘Just hang in there.’”
After giving up football, and seeing his friends live out his dreams from the sidelines, Brendan’s sense of loss deepened, as multiple MRIs and CT scans came up with nothing.
If it hadn’t been for a few strokes of luck finding the right help and a new way to channel his competitive nature, the now 29-year-old says he may never have bounced back.
Vestibular therapy
In his desperate search for answers, Brendan stumbled upon research out of the United States — a world leader in concussion research.
It led him to a vestibular physiotherapist, a specialist in the sensory system who works to detect the position and movement of the head in relation to space.
“She put some goggles on me with some cameras in them and tilted my head back and forth, swinging it around a little bit,” he says.
“She noticed in the cameras that my eyes were shaking when my head stopped moving.”
Brendan’s persistent vertigo, dizziness and unsteadiness had a name — vestibular disorder.
Finally, he had a plan of attack.
“There was a lot of brain training, things like standing on one leg, shaking your head around while trying to recite the alphabet or count backwards,” he says.
Over nine months of diligent rehab, Brendan’s physical recovery was taking leaps forward and he was left searching for something to fill the void of a sport once at the centre of his universe.
Red centre, ‘green mountains’
In January 2022 he moved to Alice Springs, after accepting a job at Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding school.
The small town has made headlines due to high levels of crime and social dysfunction, but lesser known is its proximity to the spectacular trails of the West MacDonnell Ranges.
“I remember the first time I went on the trails, I just felt, like, this beauty in these mystical, magical ranges that we have out in the desert,” Brendan says.
“It grabbed me straight away, and it felt like I was truly myself when I was running on these trails.
“It felt like me, it felt like I was Brendan again, after not being myself for four years while dealing with my brain injury and my mental health struggles.”
And the resilience he learnt through his brain injury has inspired him to take up the challenge of ultra-running.
Last month, Brendan took out first place in the West Macs Monster 65-kilometre ultra-marathon event, smashing the course record by 25 minutes.
“I still want to test my mind and body and see where this takes me,” Brendan says.
“The longer you’re out there, the tougher it gets, but I’ve been through tough things before in my life.”
Source: AFL NEWS ABC
