00:01Paul Green was a celebrated player and coach.
00:04His death by suicide in 2022 shocked the NRL and his family.
00:10You always made me laugh and you were so silly sometimes
00:13and that's why you're the best dad ever.
00:16I'm going to miss you so much.
00:18Just months after his death, he was diagnosed with CTE,
00:22a disease caused by repetitive hits to the head.
00:25Researchers told Amanda Paul had one of the worst cases
00:29seen in Australia.
00:30The symptoms I had seen were symptoms such as anxiety,
00:36you had become quite impatient.
00:38The latest data from the Australian Sports Brain Bank
00:42obtained by the ABC has revealed over half of rugby league players' brains
00:47tested were found to have CTE.
00:49We have 51 rugby league players who've donated their brains
00:53and 31 of them had a CTE diagnosis.
00:57The paper by Alan Pearce and his colleagues included footballers
01:01in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
01:03The youngest was Manly Sea Eagles squad member Keith Titmuss,
01:07who was just 20 years old.
01:09What the data tells us is that rugby league needs to be reducing
01:14the amount of exposure for risk of CTE.
01:17The NRL has been contacted for comment.
01:19Paul Green's wife, Amanda, is calling for more support for CTE research,
01:24which can only be diagnosed after death.
01:27I feel a massive responsibility to the next generation of young athletes
01:32to help protect their brain health.
01:34And Amanda says the key to research is brain donation.
01:41The NRL has been told by the NRL has been told by the NRL has been told by the NRL
01:41has been told by the NRL has been told by the NRL has been told by the NRL has been
01:41told by the NRL has been told by the NRL has been told by the NRL has been told by
01:43the NRL has been told by the NRL has been told by the NRL has been told by the NRL
01:43has been told by the NRL has been told by the NRL.
