Brain focus on junior players

THOUSANDS of junior footballers will have their brains scanned in a new bid to stamp out concussion and serious head injuries.

Victoria’s biggest junior footy league will roll out the most comprehensive concussion management in Australian children’s sport from Wednesday, with players as young as seven given digital brain activity tests.

Yarra Junior Football League will this season enforce strict new concussion protocols, with injury data for more than 10,600 players collected and analysed.

Qualified medics will attend all matches between more than 510 teams and report every head knock for investigation.

Boys and girls from under-8s to under-18s will be offered a 10-second “EyeGuide” test to evaluate the severity of a head injury following any on-field incident.

The test generates “objective data” to help parents make an informed “return-to-play” decision for their child, taking the guesswork about when it is safe to get back on the field.

Concussion expert Alan Pearce, who led the research and drafted the guidelines, said it was a “progressive and positive duty of care’’.

“It’s all about having reliable, objective markers of recovery rather than hoping that the player is honest,’’ Professor Pearce said.

League chief executive Tim Murray said it was the first junior football competition in Australia to adopt the technology to protect players.

“The measurement of the brain function through eye movement is a really important technology and trend of managing head injury and concussion where it occurs,’’ Mr Murray said.

The rules have been driven by research that found head injuries were the most common ailment in the competition.

Junior players will begin having “baseline’’ brain scans this week, with the new technology and rules in place for the start of the season, which begins on April 18.

Players suffering a head knock during play will have their the brains assessed for abnormal activity compared to their baseline reading.

“This is a really big step in a journey of about three years and the best thing is it’s pervasive, it’s available now for free for all parents,’’ Mr Murray said. “And we are going to do more and more as we learn about the injury profile of players.’’

The EyeGuide test, which has caught the attention of AFL, NRL, World Rugby and suburban footy clubs, captures 1200 data points to analyse eye movement and an algorithm generates data to gauge brain activity.

It can be administered by medical professionals or mums and dads in amateur sports with minimal training.