Guards up on head trauma

THE AFL has invested $100,000 into the further development and research of a customised mouthguard that is monitoring the impact of heavy hits and concussion on players.

Players at four AFL clubs and four NRL clubs last year trialled the motion-sensored mouthguards. The data collection program has this year been extended to two AFLW clubs and eight AFL clubs.

The project, with Australian company HitIQ, comprises players wearing the instrumented mouthguard to record acceleration and rotation of the skull — and therefore the brain. The device may also be relevant to assess concussive and sub-concussive trauma, though this needs further research, the AFL said.

Last week it was revealed AFL legend Polly Farmer became the first Australian rules player to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the crippling neurological disorder caused by repeated head knocks.

It came as a proposed Federal Court concussion damages class action involving more than 100 past AFL players is being considered.

The AFL has been accused

of dropping the ball on concussion, though it says it has made several unpopular rule changes in the past decade to protect players’ heads.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said the league would continue to look at its rules. “We have had concussion protocols and management guidelines since the early 2000s,” McLachlan said.

“We work on prevention, we focus on diagnosis and diagnostics and then research.

“We’ve made a lot of rule changes over 15 years which have been very unpopular to protect the head.”