The Ballarat Football Netball League will adopt new 21-day concussion sidelining regulation if directed to do so by AFL Victoria.
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BFNL football competition manager Matt Newton told The Courier they were yet to be contacted in regards to new concussion protocol by the football administrative body, but would do what was best for players.
"It's going to be tricky to balance for a club, but obviously the player welfare is the main thing," he said.
On February 1, 2024, the Australian Institute of Sport and Sports Medicine Australia announced new concussion guidelines which were developed alongside several other Australian sports medicine bodies.
The protocols are aimed at youth and community sport, with the most important guidelines directing players to be sidelined from competition for a minimum of 21-days after being concussed, and for them to be symptom free for at least 14-days before returning to contact training.
The new guidelines mean Australia is now aligned with concussion protocols used in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Mr Newton said 14-day sideline protocols enforced by the BFNL in 2023 were "fairly well" received by clubs, so he doesn't expect there will be opposition to a mandatory 21-day break if it's required.
"The clubs here take it very seriously, you never want to bring a player off for it [concussion], but they understand the reasons why," he said.
"I'd say football in general we're pretty good at it, not just in the BFNL but you see it around the Central Highlands [Football League too].
"You see it all the time with players, if they need to [come off] the clubs are very diligent in doing it."
The clubs here take it very seriously, you never want to bring a player off for it [concussion], but they understand the reasons why.
- BFNL football competition manager Matt Newton
A big focus of the new guidelines is to ensure the protection of young sportspeople, and Mr Newton said he was "100 per cent" behind any initiative to improve safety for junior athletes.
While concussion protocols help, Mr Newton said there was also new training being implemented to change on field behaviours, which was making fields a lot safer for young people.
"There's always going to be those football clashes that you can't avoid, getting a head knock every now and then," he said.
"But [for the] little ones, the training of bumping and tackling, it's just a completely different training atmosphere nowadays compared to five years ago."
- Introduction of light exercise after an initial 24-48 hours of relative rest.
- Several checkpoints to be cleared prior to progression.
- Gradual reintroduction of learning and work activities. As with physical activity, cognitive stimulation such as using screens, reading, undertaking learning activities should be gradually introduced after 48 hours.
- At least 14 days symptom free (at rest) before return to contact/collision training. The temporary exacerbation of mild symptoms with exercise is acceptable, as long as the symptoms quickly resolve at the completion of exercise, and as long as the exercise-related symptoms have completely resolved before resumption of contact training.
- A minimum period of 21 days until the resumption of competitive contact/collision sport.
- Consideration of all symptom domains (physical, cognitive, emotional, fatigue, sleep) throughout the recovery process.
- Return to learn and work activities should take priority over return to sport. That is, while graduated return to learn/work activities and sport activities can occur simultaneously, the athlete should not return to full contact sport activities until they have successfully completed a fully return to learn/work activities.
