AFL hands out club rankings amid ‘confusion’ on pre-season training
The Australian Football League has ranked clubs based on concussion incidents in a memo issued on preseason head injuries, with teams expressing frustration that the document has not provided clear guidelines from the organisation.
A memo to all 18 clubs, which laid bare match-simulations from the pre-season, showed the highest rate of concussions, prompting Port Adelaide chairman David Koch to fire back in an email, taking a swipe at the league for its inconsistent approach.
Koch’s email, sent to AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon and the 17 other club bosses, prompted a apology from him about the lack of clarity during a phone hook-up of club CEOs on Monday.
The contentious memo, from AFL legal boss Stephen Meade and head medic Michael Makdisi, also provided the clubs with individualised reports, detailing their rate per season concussion numbers compared with the rest of the competition, including where they ranked among the 18 clubs.
The AFL instructed clubs to keep an eye on the amount of pre-season training with contact.
A number of clubs had expressed frustration to the publication that they weren't given clear guidelines on protecting their players from head knocks, and that there was no conclusive evidence that a certain level of full contact training results in fewer concussions.
One team's statistics showed a higher proportion of contact exercises but fewer head knocks occurred.
"The AFL announced that the highest risk of concussion occurred in match simulations at 2.38 per 1000 player hours and small-sided games at 2.31 per 1000 player hours," the memo stated.
“... the biggest risk of getting a concussion was during the pre-season training compared to during the regular training sessions,” it said.
Contacted by this masthead, Koch said his email was supposed to stay private, but said: “While there was a bit of a stir among the clubs about the directive that was sent out by the league, the AFL was quick to clear things up and get the whole footy industry focused on just how serious the concussion issue is and using every effort to develop better rules around it.”
Richmond Tigers' leading goal-scorer Tom Lynch got knocked out in a crash with a teammate during a pre-season training session last week.
The Australian Football League said it will keep gathering data to lower concussion incidents during training.
“Protecting player health and safety and minimising head impact injuries is a top priority for the AFL and we're closely working with clubs to get a clearer picture of the amount of contact training they're doing throughout the year,” the league said in a statement to this publication.
“We're still collecting information and we'll continue to work with all relevant parties to figure out the best time and way to put in place the necessary medical guidance."
The Australian Football League (AFL) is keeping an eye on pre-season concussions for the second year in a row, following the coronial inquest into the death of former Richmond player Shane Tuck.
Neurodegenerative brain damage condition - chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
In March 2024, the league said it would "consider limiting contact training sessions at AFL and AFLW clubs, noting that the AFL already prohibits contact boxing and sparring".
Collingwood veteran Scott Pendlebury said the Magpies were doing fewer contact sessions than in previous pre-seasons.
“It’s more the tackling technique we can work on to make sure we protect ourselves,” Pendlebury said.
I haven't had a crack in the pre-season for about 10 years. That might be the key there.
On the phone to football club bosses, Dillon said the AFL needs more time and a bigger sample size from the training data before deciding on pre-season training.
The Australian Football League didn't comment on the concussion rankings.
Each club was also thought up a ranking system to show how much contact training they did during the pre-season compared to non-contact drills.
Clubs could view their own position, but couldn't see the ranking of other clubs.
With Gemma Grant
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