Tassie scientist aids AFL reboot
THE AFL has looked to the research of a Tasmanian sport scientist as it works to avoid mass injuries with the return to competition post COVID lockdown.
Former Hobartian now based in Berlin Joel Mason conducted an analysis of German soccer league Bundesliga’s return to competition in May after its 66-day hiatus and found injuries were now significantly more likely.
The Bundesliga was the first of Europe’s top soccer leagues to resume.
Dr Mason said it provided an “interesting” case study as competitions around the world restarted and experienced a “large spike” in injuries at training and in the first games back.
“Some teams are faring worse than others, and early indications suggest the same story in the AFL with the training injuries being reported so far,” Dr Mason said.
“A lot of it comes down to how they managed their training workloads during and immediately after the lockdown.”
Players have maintained general fitness during lockdown, but Dr Mason said running and home gyms were no substitute for typical team training regiments.
“Players had less access to sport-specific movements like accelerations, decelerations, change of direction and specific strength.
“All of these elements need to be appropriately amassed through training, and when players suddenly stop doing them for a while, they’re in danger when they return.”
Dr Mason crunched the numbers and found injury rates in the Bundesliga rose 226 per cent per game from 0.27 pre lockdown to 0.88 post.
His findings and recommendations caught the attention of the AFL and professional sports teams internationally.
Dr Mason has recommended the AFL should not rule out changes to interchange or player list dynamics that would lessen the burden on players.
He said the AFL should also “avoid cramming the fixture together later in the season just to come good on their commitment to provide a certain number of games”.
“Game congestion is a recipe for poor performance and increased injury risk, and no fan wants to see that.”
Dr Mason was a student at New Town High School and Elizabeth College and seventime Tasmanian high jump champion.
He works at Jena’s Institute of Sport Science in Berlin as a sport scientist and lecturer and his Bundesliga analysis has led to him consulting for professional teams across Europe and helping them manage their return to training.