AFL to beef up concussion protocols for upcoming AFL Women’s competition

THE AFL has confirmed it wants to conduct baseline concussion tests for its entire women’s league next year as it seeks to safeguard them from brain injuries.

Emma Kearney runs away from Chelsea Randall.

THE AFL has confirmed it wants to conduct baseline concussion tests for its entire women’s league next year as it seeks to safeguard them from brain injuries.

The league’s determination to ensure the safety of players was reinforced this week when it sought further clarification from the Swans over their medical treatment of Josh Kennedy.

The AFL gave Sydney the all-clear over its conduct as it announced it would expand its Hawkeye trial to all grounds to give club doctors immediate vision of incidents involving players.

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That system allows club doctors access to a tablet containing multiple video angles it can synch or zoom in on to see if a player’s symptoms suggest concussion.

AFL football operations manager Mark Evans confirmed this week the league was considering two separate submissions to provided a baseline test for its women.

“There is an opportunity to do some baseline concussion testing and research. There are a couple of groups that have contacted us about that and we are working through those proposals,’’ he said.

Moana Hope collects a Demons player high.

Many international studies have inferred the level of concussions are far higher on female contact sports than in their male counterparts, with little peer-reviewed research on the subject in Australia.

The women’s league has already shown it will have a spate of crunching collisions, with the recent Western Bulldogs-Melbourne exhibition game an example of the physicality likely to be on show in the eight-week AFL league next year.

There is conjecture in the medical world about whether concussions are diagnosed by a basic MRI test, with AFL-sanctioned researcher Alan Pearce believing those tests only assess structural damage and not brain function.

But clubs including Sydney are conducting baseline tests of their entire lists to attempt to provide a comparison point should players later be concussed.

The Australian Athletes Alliance recently formed a concussion working group that is calling for greater independent research and increased funding from codes including the AFL.

The AFL’s commendable attitude to keeping concussed AFL players off the field is in stark contrast to its levels of investment in the field of independent concussion research.

Katie Brennan is tackled by Ceceila MacIntosh.

The NFL this week announced it would donate another $US 100 million to independent concussion research after admitting it had been slow to study the affects of concussions and repeated head hits.

The money will be spent on “independent medical research and engineering advancements” to increase the “prevention, diagnosis and treatment of head injuries and enhance medical protocols“.

If NFL concussion protocols are broken by teams those clubs face massive fines and the loss of draft picks.

The AFL hopes to announce few funding for concussion projects once the collective bargaining agreement is brokered, but has funded little research that is subsequently released to the public.

The league has an agreement with the Florey Institute and has referred players for brain scans after serious concussions in recent years.

Originally published as AFL to beef up concussion protocols for upcoming AFL Women’s competition