Injury Patrick McCartin

[Kildonan]

Games missed from concussion skyrocketing
Nathan Schmook, AFL Media July 8, 2016 5:36 PM

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 9: Paddy McCartin of the Saints is seen injured during the 2016 AFL Round 03 match between the St Kilda Saints and the Collingwood Magpies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne on April 9, 2016. (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media)


GAMES missed due to concussion have continued to skyrocket in the AFL, according to the League's 2015 injury survey, as clubs become more conservative in their management of head injuries.

The annual injury report, which was released on Friday afternoon, shows players missed more than 75 games across the League because of concussion last season, at an average of 4.2 a club.

Download the full 2015 AFL Injury Survey (PDF)

It was a significant spike from the 2014 figures (1.6 games a club) and well up on 10 years ago, when an average of 0.3 games a club were lost each season to concussion.

Football operations manager Mark Evans said the results showed all sections of the injury, including medical officers, coaches and players, had moved to more conservative treatment methods.

Concussion has been in the spotlight this week after St Kilda No.1 draft pick Paddy McCartin suffered his third episode this year, with the Saints unable to now put a timeframe on his return to football.

Former Brisbane Lions defender Justin Clarke retired in March, with the 22-year-old citing the "debilitating" effects of a concussion suffered in February for his decision.

The injury survey defines concussion as an instance where a player is required to miss a match.

The report notes there were fewer new concussions in 2015, compared to the average over the past five years, but more games had been missed.

The AFL revised its concussion management guidelines in 2011, 2013 and again at the start of 2015 to reinforce a more conservative approach to concussion management.

In 2015 the use of a sideline head injury assessment form was introduced to help doctors identify symptoms or conditions that automatically excluded a player from returning to a match.

The AFL said it would present results from the first two years of operation of the form at the International Consensus Conference on Concussion in Sport in Berlin in October.

Meanwhile, serious knee injuries reached a two-year high in 2015, with 16.7 games a club missed because of anterior cruciate ligament injuries across the League (up from 11.1 in 2014 and below the 17.8 in 2013).

An average of 37.4 games were missed per club for all knee injuries (up from 27.6 in 2014 and below 39.5 in 2013).

The 24th annual edition of the injury survey showed clubs lost an average of 156 games to injury in 2015.

Evans said the results would continue to direct the AFL in the work it does with clubs, research boards and other stakeholders to prevent injuries and improve recovery protocols.

"Player health and welfare is a primary concern for the AFL, with continued work every year around ensuring that our rules and our approach to the game works to make the sport as safe as possible within the bounds of a contact sport," Evans said.

The injury results were presented to the League's Medical Officers' Association and all clubs earlier this week.

GAMES MISSED PER CLUB

Body area            2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Head/neck             2.5  3.7  2.2  2.2  3.5  5.6  3.5  4.4  2.8  7.0
Shoulder/arm/elbow   17.6 11.1 14.0 12.1 13.5 17.7 13.4 12.0 17.7 16.8
Forearm/wrist/hand    4.8  5.4  4.6  5.7  4.5  7.2  5.0  4.6  5.0  5.6
Trunk/back            8.8  6.5  7.6  6.4  9.2  8.3  8.5  6.5  8.4  8.2
Hip/groin/thigh      45.0 52.9 48.8 49.7 48.8 36.8 38.6 39.6 32.8 34.9
Knee                 26.6 35.6 34.7 30.6 30.5 35.1 29.8 39.5 27.6 37.4
Shin/ankle/foot      31.6 27.1 30.6 39.6 38.1 42.7 42.6 47.1 47.6 42.4
Medical illnesses     0.7  3.1  3.5  3.7  3.2  3.2  4.2  4.2  3.7  3.2
Non-football injuries 0.5  1.4  1.1  1.3  2.4  0.5  2.1  0.3  0.5  0.1

 

[Strahany]

The argument coming from the NFL, which is that helmets do not seem to prevent concussion, does not quite apply to the AFL, or at least not yet.

The biggest issue in the NFL is that players will go faster and harder at each other, and also head-first, since the pads and helmet alleviate some inhibition. For example, go out in the cricket nets and see how you go facing up to pace bowlers with and without pads; it's a very real psychological effect. On top of this, the front line players in the NFL weigh two to three times that of AFL players, and are often still very quick, as they train for explosiveness.
For anyone that knows their physics, the amount of force equals mass multiplied by acceleration, so a 300 pound guy coming at you fast whilst you're running head-first in his direction will never end well, pads or not.

Even if every AFL player wore some of the softer style padded rugby helmets, the game would never transform into something like the NFL with the same issues. Whether they actually provide a significant amount of protection or not is debatable, but, theoretically, they will help somewhat.

Like I wrote above, force equals mass multiplied by acceleration. Coming to a stop due to deceleration is also a form of acceleration. Padding, whether it be the foam mats that gymnasts fall onto, the crumpling of cars, or these helmets, all act to increase the time it takes to come to a stop. So, if you're running at 15km/h at stop instantly, that's an extreme deceleration, which means extreme force. But if you're running at 15km/h and stop in two seconds, then the rate of deceleration is lower since it took longer to slow down, therefore a lesser force.
These rugby helmets absorb impact and decrease the rate of deceleration, therefore reducing the force. Since they're quite small, the effect won't be massive, but it'd be enough to hopefully prevent a severe knock from resulting in concussion, or an already imminent concussion being made more severe.