Preseason testing: Junior football club acts on head knocks concern

During the preseason, the club facilitated baseline testing for older players with a Caringbah clinic specialising in headache, migraine and concussion diagnosis and treatment.

The results of the baseline testing will provide a data set for comparison post-head injury if a player sustains a serious head knock during the season.

Adam Tuffin, whose son Oscar, 13, was among those tested, said, "I think it's good idea for the AFL and the wider football community to be taking concussion more seriously".

"Anything we can do to protect young players coming through is potentially very beneficial."

Cronulla JAFC President Mark Wilson said the AFL was probably leading the way among sporting codes in Australia on addressing the issue.

"We asked all our coaches and managers to come together and receive a brief from the concussion clinic" he said.

"On the back of that, we saw an opportunity to conduct a pilot test with a group of our kids from the under 12s and 13s.

"It is still up to parents decide whether the pilot test is right for their their kids, and the parents do have to pay, although there is a 30 per cent discount for doing it as a group.

"Our club caters for under 5s to under 17s.

"Up until under 8s the kids are in the Auskick program which has minimal contact, and in the under 9s and 10s age groups we generally find there is not the required velocity to threaten serious head injuries.

"But the tempo of the game really picks up in the under 11s, 12s and 13s.

"In those age groups, we have seen a huge take-up of the tests by parents who see how much quicker and harder the game becomes."

Mr Wilson said the club's aim was to "put this topic front of mind and make it easier for kids at the club and parents to access testing".

"We are codifying an approach, which could perhaps become part of our preseason process," he said.

"We came to the conclusion there is only one window of opportunity before your first concussion to get a really accurate baseline test done, and that is when you are a junior.

"So, if you can get that first baseline data set prior to the first concussive or mild traumatic brain injury event occurring, you are armed to understand what are the changes that come from that concussive event.

"We felt it incumbent on us as a junior footy club to start an initiative like this.

"Its absolutely linked to the AFL's renewed focus on concussion and management protocols and the introduction of a compulsory 21-day concussion management window mandated by the AFL for their Junior competitions."

Under the AFL's new community guidelines, a player has to wait at least 21 days to return to play from the day on which a concussion was sustained, and provided the player has safely progressed through each phase of the return-to-play program.

The Sydney Headache & Migraine Centre, which conducted the tests for Cronulla JAFC, said data was collected from a range of measures including important aspects of concussion injuries such as balance, visual tracking and processing speed, strength and physical performance measures, auditory memory & concentration as well as computerised neurocognitive measures.

"When properly used and interpreted, these tests provide useful information for the management of sport-related concussion," the centre said.

"It provides a clinician with a reference point by giving clinical insight into the pre-injury physical and cognitive functioning of the player.

"With this information, more informed and safer, return-to-play decisions can be made."