“I’m donating the other organs, so if there’s any benefit from my head, then yes,” Grothe said. “With what happened in the NFL, duty of care is very important. “It’s such an important part of you, the head. It would be good if everyone is behind it.” Kenny, Sterling’s long-time halves partner, said he suffered several concussions during his career and wondered whether they contributed to moments of forgetfulness or disorientation later in life. “I worry about it,” Kenny said.

“I’ve thought at times when I’ve been at home at one end of the house and then I go to the other end to grab whatever and I am halfway up there and I think 'what was it that I wanted'. You talk to other guys and they say they forget what they were after and you wonder if it has to do with head knocks. “Age plays a part in it as well. Hearing a few guys we played with and against, they might have dementia. Case study: Eric Grothe is one of several Eels greats willing to donate his brain to science. Credit:SMH “You think if it has to do with the concussions we copped. When you think of it that way, what would be wrong with donating your brain for them to work out what they need to do to prevent it? “Hopefully, it’ll be a while.”

O’Reilly, the first Parramatta junior to represent Australia, was glad the issue of concussions had been brought into the public arena. “Just talking as a layman, once you’re gone you have no use for anything left,” he said of the prospect of donating his brain. “In my opinion, if it can help science, if it can help in any way do something for head injury, it wouldn’t worry me in the slightest. “It’s a really good step by Peter Sterling. We sometimes think of organ donation, and after what Peter said I think there’s a lot of value in it.” Glover added: “It’s something I would do. If you’re passing away and those organs can help people, that is something I would do. At the end of the day, if that can help someone else, that’s what you should do.

“I got knocked out once but my memory is not too bad at the moment. Sometimes I get into that old-age situation where you walk 100 metres up the road and wonder whether you have locked the front door." Grothe said there were moments when he had memory blanks but was unsure whether they were attributable to concussions or other factors. “It’s hard to tell,” Grothe said. “I’m absent-minded anyway, you just don’t know. It probably comes on more when you’re past 60 and into your 70s, you feel it a bit more. “They’ve done the tests, it’s all part of it.” Another legendary Eel, Peter Wynn, applauded the NRL for taking steps to make the game safer.

“There’s plenty of head knocks in my day . . . plenty to reflect on now," he said. “I’ve honestly not really thought about it until now. I just thought it was part of my past. I didn’t realise it was becoming an issue now. “I’ll have to get home and have a chat to my wife and family and see what they think." Another former Parramatta player, Brett Horsnell, is currently taking legal action against the club over its handling of concussions. Horsnell made 154 first-grade appearances for the Gold Coast Giants, South Queensland Crushers and the Eels, playing his last two seasons for the latter. The Eels are the only body left to sue after the Giants and Crushers disappeared from the league landscape.