'Dad was the centre of our world': Family donates brain of Canberra rugby league player for CTE research

Michael Keech always had the biggest smile in the room, even when his mates told you he never had to wash his shorts after a game because they were never dirty.

To his mates, he was the loveable larrikin. To his family, he was "the centre of our world".

Which is why something needed to be done when we lost "Keechy" - your columnist's godfather - in January.

Keech's brain has been donated for research into the effects of concussion and chronic traumatic encephalopathy - a brain disease caused by repeated head knocks that can only be diagnosed after death - and now a band of former Queanbeyan Blues teammates have committed to follow suit.

His mates jokingly tell you the former Blues and Woden Valley Rams playmaker, who played in Canberra's first grade rugby league competition in the 1980s and 1990s, would chirp and then hide behind a bigger teammate when tempers flared.

I know, because my dad was one of them.

The reality is Keech played in an unrelenting era of the game when head knocks that shook the dust off the rafters of Seiffert Oval were a badge of honour.

"Dad was the centre of our world. He kept it all together and kept us all moving forward," Keech's daughter Melanie Stewart said.

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"Dad and I bonded recently over the podcasts and docos mid last year that were coming out about CTE. We'd talked about it and I'd asked if he was worried for himself and [how] he had many concussions. He told me stories like the ones your dad remembered the night we were doing the paperwork. They'd be concussed and still play. I don't think he ever went to hospital though.

"Not long after he passed I'd thought about the donation. I mentioned it to mum on Wednesday night and when the coroner's office called on Thursday afternoon my gut instinct was that we had to make it happen.

"I called the Sports Brain Bank to enquire and they were really helpful. They worked with the coroner and funeral director. The donation was made on Friday morning."

The decision of a handful of former local players to donate their brains for CTE research comes as rugby league officials try to balance player welfare and the threat of class action while preserving a game built on brutality and a gladiatorial mindset.

Now, the family of the bloke who once pushed yours truly to the point of vomiting when he ran a Blues under 18s session - Get to the front of the group, Caden! - is helping make a difference.

Stephen Larkham and Nic White got home a tick before midnight after a Super Rugby game. The next day you could find them at Townsend Oval in Merewether watching third grade, then second grade at No. 2 sportsground, and then to Bernie Curran Oval to watch first grade.

Why? Because "sometimes there are things that are bigger than rugby".

The ACT Brumbies coach and scrumhalf spent a day in Newcastle to raise awareness for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma research. White's family friend Matt Dun lost his daughter to the lethal childhood disease and now has a charity called RUN DIPG to help families in a similar situation.

"I just asked [Larkham], 'Mate, can you come up to the Hunter, they'd really appreciate it'. He said, 'Mate, I'd love to'," White said.

"The charity is about raising money so they can find a cure and also raising awareness because people just don't know about it, there's this cancer affecting young kids and it's not curable.

"This is what rugby is about."

It should come as no surprise that Larkham still has significant pulling power when it comes to rugby fans. The 1999 World Cup winner and three of his players turned up to Canberra Airport last week for the Fiji Airways announcement about direct flights to the capital. Larkham was mobbed by Fijian rugby fanatics while his players stood off to the side marvelling at Larkham's willingness to take a photo with every fan in the line, which was longer than the security check-in queue.

There were plenty of laughs - and beers - at the Matt Millar-Sia Soliola golf day on Monday, especially after Rod Kafer nailed a hole-in-one to win a $50,000 prize.

As the night went on and sporting bucket list items were auctioned off, Brumbies great Kafer regaled his 198-metre effort with a four-iron. "At last count, I think the story was up around 10 or 12 minutes for one shot," one golf-goer told us.

Turns out Kafer wasn't the only sports star dialled in on the par threes. Jack Wighton - the subject of intense scrutiny about his future - got within eight centimetres on the eighth hole. It was the nearest to the pin until ... Ricky Stuart put it to seven centimetres, or so it seemed. Later in the night Stuart confirmed it was a stitch-up, and Wighton won the prize of taking home his height in beer. With Wighton standing at 190 centimetres, the beer fridge should be full for a while yet.

Millar and Sioliola have spent the best part of the week tallying up donations for St Vincent de Paul, with the final number coming in at bang on an impressive $60,000 raised.

But if you think Kafer or Wighton's efforts were the best of the day, think again. Soliola refused a cart and walked 18 holes with a torn hamstring after playing for Queanbeyan last weekend.

We were surprised to see former Brumbies lock Rory Arnold back in Canberra last week, especially given his new career choice according to Eddie Jones.

Arnold was spotted at Canberra club rugby watching the Gungahlin Eagles and Uni-Norths Owls at Nicholls. He's one of the highest-paid Australian players anywhere in the world, on a reported $1.5 million per year in Japan.

But his team, the Hino Red Dolphins, cancelled their season after the players trashed a nightclub. It has left Arnold without crucial game time before the World Cup later this, prompting Jones to quip: "I think he's working on the factory line at Hino, isn't he?

"I think he's making those trucks because he's not playing rugby at the moment. To get selected, you have to be playing rugby."

We can confirm Arnold still looks more like a rugby player than a factory worker, and don't be surprised to see him in a Wallabies squad at some point later this year.

Brumbies players spread far and wide for a week off, but rugby is never too far from the mind.

Noah Lolesio found that out when he got back to Canberra ahead of the players returning to training on Sunday. He ran into Wallabies legend George Gregan at Canberra Airport on his way home from a break.

We're not sure what was said, but you can bet Gregan passed on some handy tips to help Lolesio get on to Jones' Wallabies radar after being left out of a World Cup planning camp.

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