Sport
18 March, 2024
New return to play rules for local clubs
The AFL has announced new return to play concussion protocols for levels outside of the AFL and AFLW, including the Bendigo Football Netball League (BFNL) and the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League (MCDFNL). New mandatory...
The AFL has announced new return to play concussion protocols for levels outside of the AFL and AFLW, including the Bendigo Football Netball League (BFNL) and the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League (MCDFNL).
New mandatory guidelines for state, elite pathway, senior and junior community football competitions, state players returning from a concussion must first complete a minimum 21-day return to play protocol before returning to the field. AFL and AFLW players will remain under the jurisdiction of a minimum 12-day protocol.
Concussions in the AFL came to the forefront of discussion on the eve of the AFL season, following the shock retirement of Melbourne premiership player Angus Brayshaw on medical advice, and St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster receiving a seven-match ban for a bump on North Melbourne captain Jy Simpkin in a preseason match.
The decision comes after the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and Australian Sports Commission (ASC) released their Concussion and Brain Health Position Statement, as well as the Youth and Community Sport Guidelines in February.
The report handed down numerous recommendations (see attached graphic), with AIS chief medical officer Dr David Hughes stating regional sporting leagues should always be mindful of concussion risks.
“Sport is part of the fabric of regional communities, guidelines like these will ensure people in all parts of Australia can enjoy sport in a safe and welcoming environment,” he said.
“We don’t instruct [leagues] what to do, [the report] is a suggestion and a recommendation from us — we want as many Australians as possible participating in sport while providing a safe environment.
“We feel it is really important to put our flag in the sand and say these are our quite conservative but appropriate guidelines for youth and community sport.”
As part of the report, Dr Hughes has called for extra care in youth athletes, due to their increased risk of serious head trauma.
“There is a higher bar in terms of standard of care for youth, we know young adults are still growing and developing a lot of neuroplasticity and are also prone to issues with mental health which concussion can have an impact on,” he said.
“Research shows adolescents and children take longer to recover than adults, so it’s important that we have a cautious approach towards this group.”
A key recommendation from the AIS is the appointment of a concussion officer by community sporting clubs.
Dr Hughes said concussion officers can play a massive role in the safety of local athletes.
“For youth and community sport, we need to have a safety buffer due to the lack of resources,” he said.
“We recognise that there simply is not enough, and will never be enough doctors to be on the sidelines at community sport and events around the country. If we want to improve diagnoses and management of concussions in community sport, we need to educate more people to increase our workforce.
“A concussion officer does not need to be an expert on concussions, their role is to ensure communities are aware of the concussion policy, they receive reports from anyone in the community who sees something that they think might be a concussion, and they ensure the individual enters the agreed concussion protocol.”
MCDFNL president Kathie Teasdale has welcomed the report, stating player safety is a main priority for the league.
“I was really pleased by the announcement, the link between head impacts and long-term brain injuries has been widely recognised, so the more steps we can take to protect our players from the harm that it causes later in life the better,” she said.
“They are following the science, the science is now saying that it should be 21 days so that is what we should do.
“Two years ago, one of our junior players from Harcourt had their third concussion, that is somebody that hasn’t even left juniors yet and now they will never be able to play again.
“We need to protect our players, this is a game, an important sport and I love it that people are involved, but you have to put your health first.”
Ms Teasdale, who also has a trainer background, said the league is prepared to support its players and clubs once the new protocols are officially introduced by the AFL.
“We will be tracking how this is implemented in the league, but we don’t have those tools yet until we get the direction from the AFL officially,” she said.
“What we are doing is introducing extra trainers courses and we are actually bringing them to clubs and we are covering the cost of them.
“There are a lot of tools that can be used and we want to make sure [our trainers] are using those tools to make those decisions.
“I found in the past that as long as you are direct in calling concussions, that everyone is pretty happy to follow protocol, it’s sometimes players who hide it and sometimes it’s parents at juniors who don’t have the same concern as scientists do.
“A player can take a fairly heavy knock, keep running and we might not even see the knock — what we are trying to teach our players is that it is in your own best interests to say, ‘I’ve had a knock’.”
The Australian Sports Foundation conducted the Clubs Under Pressure report in May of last year, which found one in four community sporting clubs considered closing in the last year.
This was due to an increase in running costs, a decrease in participation, especially from teenagers, and a lack of volunteers.
Member for Mallee and shadow assistant minister for regional health Dr Anne Webster said she is supportive of the AIS recommendations, but is concerned how they can place a larger strain on an already struggling cornerstone of regional communities.
“I am very concerned how these recommendations may impact the future of country sport, but business-as-usual is not an option for country footy and other sporting codes,” she said.
“There needs to be an under-standing of the specific circumstances facing regional sporting teams — maybe if one player from one team has a concussion and won’t be playing for three weeks, the team that are playing them also takes a player out so things are fair when teams are doing the right thing.
“You just don’t want to take the additional risks of having players who had a concussion going back and continuing to play the next week because they feel they have no option.
“The last thing we want is people dropping out of sport, clubs folding and the social fabric of regional communities, already torn during the pandemic, ripped to shreds.”