The AFL has ranked clubs on a concussion ladder in a memo on pre-season head knocks that left teams confused and frustrated at what they say is a lack of direction from head office on the biggest issue in the game.
The memo to all 18 clubs, which revealed match-simulations in pre-season produced the highest rate of concussions, prompted Port Adelaide chairman David Koch to fire back in an email that criticised the league for an inconsistent approach.
Koch’s blast, emailed to AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon and the 17 other club chairs and presidents, prompted Dillon to apologise for the lack of clarity during a phone hook-up of club CEOs on Monday.
The controversial memo, from AFL legal boss Stephen Meade and head medico Michael Makdisi, also provided the clubs with individualised reports, detailing their rate of pre-season concussions compared with the rest of the competition, including where they ranked among the 18 clubs.
It instructed clubs to continue monitoring the amount of pre-season contact training.
Officials at 10 clubs told this masthead they were frustrated they were not given clear guidelines as to how they could protect their players from head knocks, and that there was no conclusive evidence linking a certain amount of contact training with a reduction in concussions.
Richmond spearhead Tom Lynch was concussed in a collision with a teammate at pre-season training.Credit: Justin McManus
One club’s data showed a higher percentage of contact drills but fewer concussions.
”Contact training with the highest risk of concussion were match simulation (2.38 per 1000 player hours) and small sided games (2.31 per 1000 player hours),” the AFL memo stated.
“… The highest risk of concussion was during pre-season training compared to in-season training sessions,” it said.
Contacted by this masthead, Koch said his email was supposed to remain private but said: “While there was confusion among the clubs at the directive sent out by the league, the AFL was quick to clarify their intention and focus the entire industry on just how seriously we need to take the issue of concussion and use all of our efforts to develop better protocols.”
Port Adelaide chairman David Koch at last year’s AFL grand final luncheon. Credit: Wayne Taylor
Richmond spearhead Tom Lynch was concussed in a collision with a teammate at a pre-season session last week.
The AFL said it would continue to collect data to reduce concussions at training.
“Player health and safety and the reduction of head impact injuries is at the forefront of decision-making at the AFL and we are currently working closely with clubs to understand the levels of contact training being undertaken throughout the year,” the league said in a statement to this masthead.
“The gathering of this information is still ongoing and we will continue to work with all stakeholders on when and how we best implement the relevant professional medical advice.”
The AFL is monitoring pre-season concussions for the second successive pre-season in response to the coronial inquest into the death of former Richmond player Shane Tuck.
Tuck died by suicide in July 2020 and was subsequently diagnosed with the degenerative brain 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 combat boxing and sparring”.
Collingwood veteran Scott Pendlebury said the Magpies were doing fewer contact drills than in previous pre-seasons.
Scott Pendlebury chases Nick Daicos at Collingwood training on Friday.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“It’s more the technique side of the game we can work on a lot to protect ourselves,” Pendlebury said.
“I haven’t tackled in pre-season in about 10 years. That might be the secret there.”
On the call to club bosses Dillon said the AFL needed more time and a bigger sample size of training data before ruling on pre-season training.
The AFL did not comment on the concussion rankings.
Each club was also provided with a ranking for the amount of contact training they did during pre-season versus non-contact drills.
Clubs could see their own ranking, but not the ranking of other clubs.
