Three-time Adelaide premiership captain Chelsea Randall has hit out at the AFLW’s concussion policy, after being ruled out of this weekend’s semi-final due to “fresh vision” of her head knock.
Despite passing her concussion test post-match, the AFL in conjunction with Crows medical staff has made the call for Randall to sit out the do-or-die clash for the reigning premiers.
Randall suffered a head knock in the dying seconds of the qualifying final loss to Melbourne and appeared dazed as she got to her feet to take her kick.
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Immediately after the match, Randall claimed she was “embarrassed” to have “tripped over my shoelaces”.
But after using the week to recover and prepare for Saturday night’s semi final against Collingwood, Randall was on Thursday ruled out of the match as “fresh vision” emerged.
“It is frustrating and I’m disappointed around the system and the process in place because clinically I was cleared of all of that (concussion),” she told media.
“I only found out late last night (Wednesday) that the story had changed.
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“If I had the same knock at training, we wouldn’t have vision and I’d have a clinical assessment and I’d be playing this weekend.
“Unfortunately with this process, it means that some players who actually aren’t concussed will miss games.”
According to the Crows, after the new vision was supplied, the club’s medical team in consultation with the AFL medical experts determined Randall would not play.
Crows coach Matthew Clarke described the whole ordeal as “bloody frustrating”.
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“Current practice is to place a lot of weigh on the vision. The clinical assessment was all really strong, the SCAT (concussion) assessment was clear and she was making great progress,” he said.
“It’s really disappointing, really frustrating … bloody frustrating.
“Concussions are really tricky – the medical teams worldwide are trying to work out exactly the best way to manage and handle that.
“It’s an evolving process – the current practice is to place a lot of weight on the vision.”
It’s not the first time Randall has been ruled out of a final due to concussion, after missing the 2021 grand final loss due to a head knock suffered in the preliminary final.
It’s been a tough few weeks for the 31-year-old, who was in her first game back in the qualifying final where she sustained the head knock.
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Randall, returning from an ankle injury suffered in Round 8, was sporting a black eye sustained in a collision with a teammate at training.
Crows women’s footy boss Phil Harper said Randall’s health was the priority moving forward.
“Chelsea is the heart and soul of our team and we would obviously love to have her playing in such a big game however, we must and will always prioritise the health and wellbeing of our people, it’s of paramount importance,” he said.
“While she has not presented with any symptoms, we have now seen vision showing different angles of the incident that according to Club and League medical experts gives grounds for her to not play under the AFL’s concussion rules.
“She is obviously very disappointed to be missing a final but in typical fashion, she is getting behind her teammates and doing all she can to help us get the win.”
