Current players receive plenty of information and support on the topic, but there’s hundreds of past players who don’t.
A lot of them would have symptoms to various degrees. If you listen to Richmond podcasts, you’ll be familiar with Richo ticking some of the boxes. The uncertainty of it would be frustrating in itself.
Not many doctors are up to date. Maybe the club could make yearly reviews of the literature with support of past players in mind?
Best thing to do for the brain is similar to the body. Diet and varied exercise.
Avoid “brain training” exercises, but anything that makes you think will help. You know what it feels like to actively figure something out, doesn’t matter what it is. Get in that zone for something each day like you‘d exercise for half an hour a day. And change it up like you’d change up your exercise, otherwise your body adapts too much to that specific task.
Symptoms can be managed. Do anything that keeps you feeling sharp, and change it up every 6-8 weeks. Similar to a 50yo or 60yo wanting to delay normal age-related cognitive decline.
Culturally, one barrier is people feeling embarrassed to “exercise their brain” because they feel they’re not good at it. They feel they should be able to perform better, so don’t end up doing it.
Same as a physically overweight guy not wanting to run the tan because of embarrassment. It helps to have people encouragement you to stay mentally engaged with various stuff that makes us think. Maybe SuperCoach or an NFL thing with friends, for example.
If you can’t run the tan, do a lap of an oval first with some friends. Then do some swimming. Bring a beach ball if it helps. Maybe not everyone will be running marathons in 10 years, but it’s possible to help each other get into a better place.