AFL trials players wearing concussion sensors

AFL players will embark upon a cutting-edge concussion trial that will see them wear movement sensors behind their ears to measure the effects of body contact.

The concussion sensor study with Monash University will involve players in the JLT Community Series and AFLW competition.

The league had promised it would conduct benchmark neurological testing of all of its women so it could compare the effects of concussions.

The AFL has stopped short of that initiative but replaced it with a study that will allow it to compare the effect of collisions on players with other worldwide codes.

A similar study with the Randwick Rugby Club in 2015 saw small sensors the size of a 10cm coin taped behind the ear of players.

When downloaded, that in- formation measures the impact of hits – the G forces involved – and can be used when judging the effects of concussions.

Eventually it is hoped realtime technology might allow club doctors to remove a player from action if warranted.

The league’s concussion prevention management has been lauded given new rules preventing concussed players returning to the field. But the Australian Athletes Alliance continues to urge it and other codes to invest more into studies that will grow each code’s knowledge of concussion.

AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said the women’s competition would have identical concussion guidelines to the men.

“The AFL is also implementing a concussion sensor project in partnership with Monash University where players competing in the JTL Community Series and the NAB AFL Women’s competition will wear sensors behind their ear which measure impacts and accelerations of the head and can be correlated to any concussions sustained,’’ Keane said.

‘This will allow the AFL to benchmark Australian football against other sports worldwide.”

Randwick’s director of rugby Nick Ryan said in 2015 it was the repeated hits – often at a lesser force – that actually caused surprising damage.

“What we’re finding is ... the accumulative hits, the small and medium-range hits that happen multiple times during a game, are the things that are the most destructive,” he said.

The study of those repeated hits is a growing field of research in the field.