WA Football Commission endorses AIS concussion guidelines in major change to local football

The West Australian Football Commission will embrace game-changing national concussion protocols and introduce a 21-day rest period at all community levels. The radical changes include a 14-day symptom free break from collision and contact training and another seven days before the resumption of competitive play. WA football previously operated under national guidelines used by the AFL – an 11-phase process that can enable a player to return on the 12th day after suffering a concussion. Junior and senior players at all levels beneath the AFL and WAFL in this State will now move to the 21-day rest period. The change comes just eight days after the Australian Institute of Sport and Sports Medicine Australia released a 62-page Concussion and Brain Health Position Statement and urged sporting bodies to fall in line. The AIS does not have the authority to force sporting bodies to adopt the recommendations, but the WAFC board met on Tuesday night to approve the change after consultation with the WA Concussion Network, a collaboration between community, clinicians and researchers. “We want to be a leader in this space,” WAFC executive manager game development and community football Troy Kirkham told The West Australian. “We are really confident in terms of the science behind it, the AIS, and we took a lot of advice from the WA Concussion Network and other experts . “The WAFC will continue to prioritise the health and safety of our participants, ensuring that we stay at the forefront of best practice when it comes to concussion management protocols.” The WAFC has introduced instrumental mouth guards across various levels of football, gathering data which examines the number and intensity of collisions across the WAFL, WAFLW and youth age competitions. “The WAFC will continue to prioritise the Health and Safety of all of our participants, ensuring that we stay at the forefront of best practice when it comes to concussion management protocols,” Kirkham said. The move to 21 days was supported by 2023 WAFC data, with 70 per cent of concussion sufferers taking three weeks or longer to return to play. The new guidelines call for: The introduction of light exercise after an initial 24-48 hours of relative rest. Several checkpoints to be cleared prior to progression. Gradual reintroduction of learning and work activities. At least 14 days symptom-free (at rest) before return to contact/collision training. A minimum period of 21 days until the resumption of competitive contact/collision sport. Consideration of all symptom domains (physical, cognitive, emotional, fatigue, sleep) throughout the recovery process. Return to learning and work activities should take priority over return to sport. The WAFC introduced a three-step concussion policy in community football last season. Players who suffer a third concussion in one season sit out the remainder of the football year in the Perth Football League, country football and juniors. The WAFC brought in a blue card in 2022 in the WAFL and WAFLW which gave umpires the power to send players with suspected concussions or heavy head knocks off the field for a minimum of 15 minutes to undergo SCAT 5 testing by medical staff. The WAFC’s work in the concussion space has been recognised in the Sport Initiative of the Year category at the upcoming WA Sport Awards. The sweeping changes follow last year’s Senate inquiry into concussion and head trauma in contact sports when a recommendation was made to “develop return to play protocols, adaptable across all sports, for both children and adults that have incurred a concussion or suffered a head trauma”. Major elite sports, including the AFL, Rugby Australia, Cricket Australia, Football Federation Australia, the NRL, Netball Australia and Tennis Australia, have their own governance but said they would review the proposals. The AFL and other elite bodies argue their protocols, which include on-field rule to tackle laws and head injury assessments, are making the game much safer. The report comes at a time when many sports, notably the AFL, are facing class actions from former players over concussion and head trauma. Late Collingwood and Richmond player Craig Stewart is the latest former footballer to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurological condition caused by repeated subconcussive blows over a long period of time.