The Concussion Blog

The Concussion Blog is now tracking the concussions of another collision sport, one with very good media coverage, albeit not in North America.  Aussie Rules Football and its professional league AFL have had an issue with concussion in the past and as we have seen on videos here, they can be scary.  With the help of Sportal we will be compiling the concussions on a weekly basis.

We have not forgotten about Aussie Rules Football, merely watching and compiling from afar.  There have been some very good contests the past 4 weeks, since our last update, but with that has come a slight increase in concussions.  If you have been following the updates for the Footy Concussions you will know that I have tried to reach out to; The AFL, some of the teams, various media in Australia and even the medical community of Australia.  All of those requests have gone unresponded to giving me pause about what actually the culture is like regarding concussions Down Under.

Currently we have found 30 concussions listed for Australia’s most popular sport, and that makes the rate of concussions 2 per round.  Below is the actual compiled list;

	Last	First	Team	Round
1	Bartel	James	GEE	0
2	Jones	Clinton	StK	0
3	Waite	Jarrad	CAR	1
4	Selwood	Joel	GEE	1
5	Davis	Phil	ADE	1
6	Clark	Mitch	BRI	1
7	Riewoldt	Jack	RIC	2
8	Blease	Sam	MEL	6
9	Riewoldt	Nick	StK	6
10	Dangerfield	Patrick	ADE	7
11	Raines	Andrew	BRI	7
12	Toovey	Alan	COL	8
13	Stanton	Brent	ESS	8
14	Hogan	Simon	GEE	8
15	Polkinghorne	James	BRI	8
16	Warnock	Rob	CAR	9
17	Christensen	Allen	GEE	9
18	Warren	Ben	NM	9
19	Goddard	Brendon	StK	10
20	Dempster	Sean	StK	10
21	Guerra	Brent	HAW	12
22	Hansen	Laclan	NM	12
23	Hocking	Heath	ESS	13
24	Bartel	James	GEE	13
25	Henderson	Ricky	ADE	14
26	Ellard	David	CAR	14
27	Griffiths	Ben	RIC	14
28	Thomas	Dale	COL	15
29	Smith	Zac	GC	15
30	Lisle	Jordan	HAW	15

Interestingly enough there are still teams that have not reported a concussion or head injury (there have been facial injuries) those are;

• Fremantle Dockers
• Port Adelaide Power
• Sydney Swans
• West Coast Eagles
• Western Bulldogs

However there seems to be a slight shift in the culture and even awareness about the concussions in sport.  CogState along with Axon Sports have come to an agreement with Toyota and the AFL to provide neurocognitive testing for footy;

WAUSAU, Wis. (July 1, 2011) Today, Toyota announced it will sponsor a new initiative that will lead the way in making Australia Rules football safer for footballers at a grassroots level. Toyota will provide the same CogState concussion testing used by the Australian Football League (AFL) clubs to over 25,000 grassroots footballers as part of the Toyota Good for Footy program. Toyota will be working closely with Axon Sports–the exclusive concussion management system of the AFL–to roll-out Baseline concussion testing to more than 130 clubs in the Toyota Good for Footy program.

Toyota Senior Executive Director, Sales & Marketing, David Buttner said, “Supporting the game we all love is a priority for Toyota and Toyota Dealers across Victoria, Southern New South Wales and Tasmania. Supporting the game we love also means keeping it safe. Providing concussion management testing to young players along with much-needed financial support reflects our commitment to safety and continuous improvement in all that Toyota does.”

The Toyota Dealers in Victoria, Southern New South Wales and Tasmania came up with the Good for Footy Program six years ago to support local football clubs in their area. Toyota Dealers donate more than $330,000 to grassroots football clubs each year and by the end of the 2011 season the Toyota Good For Footy program will have donated more than $2 million to grassroots clubs in Victoria, Southern New South Wales and Tasmania. More than 130 local football clubs benefit from Toyota Dealer support through the Good for Footy program that reaches more than 25,000 players. The necessary funds the Toyota Dealers donate go toward helping improve grounds, fund renovations of clubrooms and purchase equipment, uniforms and medical supplies. To highlight Toyota’s commitment to safety, click on the below link to view a project Toyota has been working on with the NFL. http://www.toyota.com/ideas-for-good/ideas-made-real/football.html

Congratulations to Axon Sports and CogState Concussion Testing for making headway and putting this information “near” the front pages in Australia.