The inquiry,which occurred amid calls for major sporting organisations such as the AFL and the NRL to do more to protect the welfare of players diagnosed with concussion,contains 13 recommendations including “consideration being to whether any existing government bodies would be best placed to monitor,oversee and/or enforce concussion-related rules and return-to-play protocols in Australian sports”.
The AFL and the NRL have self-regulated without government intervention and relied on international concussion consensus statements to develop policy.
In presenting the report Greens Senator Janet Rice exhorted the government to implement the recommendations which included a recommendation that “professional sporting codes and players associations consider ways for a best practice model to provide ongoing support,financial and otherwise,to current and former players affected by concussions and repeated head trauma.”
However,she noted that the report contained the word “consider”,indicating that was a watering down of the Greens’ preferred recommendation. The AFL has been considering a no-fault compensation fund to provide financial support for former players affected by concussion. The committee encouraged professional sports organisations to ensure their athletes have insurance coverage for head trauma.
The AFL have been criticised for the way they have managed concussion after they were forced to investigate the actions of former key concussion advisor and associate professor Paul McCrory when he was accused of plagiarism. McCrory ultimately resigned from his advisory role with the AFL,after urging it to take a more conservative approach to the “return-to-play” timeframes in its draft concussion protocols.
After the report was released in October last year CEO-elect Andrew Dillon apologised for underfunding a research project into the effect of concussion on past players but claimed the AFL’s concussion policies were sound. They say they have made more than 30 changes to rules and the tribunal guidelines since 2005 in an attempt to make the game safer to play and deter head high contact.