AFL Concussions

2012 Footy Concussion Report #2

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It is a good time to update what is happening Down Under as the Footy season is now in Round 18 (of 25) and after my interview on FiveAA radio in South Australia and the Kurt Tippet debate that is at least getting our attention (bold for emphasis);

Coach Brenton Sanderson expected the Crows star will resume training next week and return for the round-19 match against Essendon, but said the club would take no chances.

“I’m sure we’re going to see him back really soon,” Sanderson said on Wednesday.

“Hopefully, that’s next week but we’ll make sure we make the right decision.

“We’re not going to force him to go back out and play.

“He’s got to be comfortable, the medical team’s got to be comfortable and, as coaches, we’ve got to be comfortable with selecting him, knowing he’s going to be OK.”

Tippett suffered another head injury in the second quarter of the Crows’ win over West Coast at Football Park last weekend and was subbed out just after half-time.

It was his third concussion in just over a month and raised concerns over his long-term future.

As I stated in my interview the question of a NFL football player playing after a third concussion in five weeks is almost laughable, we rarely see three concussions in a single season, Ben Watson of the Browns last year being the only one we have found.

After the interview I did as much research as I could on Tippett Continue reading →

More Conversations Down Under

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As The Concussion Blog continues to gain recognition it seems that some of the information is being used around the world.  This can be noted in our analytics and seeing plenty of blog views from around the globe.  Not surprisingly the US has the most traffic, followed by Canada and Mexico.  The next most is the United Kingdom and Australia; presumably for our coverage of soccer and Aussie Rules.  Because of this we get vast amounts of email from around the globe, and Australia has been providing tons of information to help with the blog and insight of how things are handled in their part of the world.

Most recently I was sent the 2011 AFL Injury Report for a comparison of our numbers versus theirs.  Before we get into the actual concussion numbers it is interesting to note the most troublesome injury in football Down Under is hamstrings.  By far this muscular injury affects more players per club per season than any other.

Back to the injury report, an injury is defined as “injury or medical condition which causes a player to miss a match”.  It does not take into consideration any ailment that a player plays through or one that resolves in time for the next match.  This is not unlike the NFL and their injury listings giving rise to an actual reporting issue – one we have discussed many times.  If you look at the report they have historical perspective as well; in terms of concussion 2011 was the highest in incidence (1.1 new concussions/team/season) since 1992 (1.3 new concussions/team/season).  There was over double the incidence of concussion from 2010 (heck almost three fold since 2006) to this past year.

The primary question was how does the official numbers jive with our numbers here; the answer is Continue reading →

2012 Footy Concussion Report #1

Dustin Fink3 Comments

There may not be any posts about Australian Rules Football concussions to this point but we have been watching.  As you have seen in previous days the press in Australia is starting to report more and more the issues with concussions, something that was absent the past few years.  As it stands now the AFL has 21 listed concussions, up from 11 this time last year.

Heading into this expansion season I was looking forward to the better reporting of concussions in the AFL.  Last year the league and press drew harsh criticism from me for what I believed to be intentionally hiding the injury.  Heck the ‘Super Footy’ section of the press stopped reporting ALL injuries for a four-week period as I was posting the injuries, and when it returned it was EXTREMELY rare to find anyone listed as a concussion so we turned to another website called Sportal.  As the season progressed we found more concussions and by the end of the season last year we had our first picture of footy concussions over a season.  Looking back one of the primary problems discovered and remedied by seasons end was the high number of facial fractures that seemed to be overriding a concussion, hence the need for Fink’s Rule.

It is now 2012, with the heightened awareness there is hope that a “truer” picture of AFL concussions can be taken…  Continue reading →

Return of Footy Concussion Watch

Dustin Fink1 Comment

Our primary visitors do not know much about Footy, also known as Australian Rules Football, however due to this author liking the sport combined with the seemingly lack of current awareness Down Under I feel it is worthy of keeping up on here.

Last year I was rather critical of how the AFL and the Footy culture appeared to not to be up-to-speed with the concussion/brain injury definitely inherent to the sport;

It should come as no surprise that concussions have been seemingly low for a sport with a ton of full speed collisions; a lot of them coming “unannounced” and unexpectedly, the most prevalent way of sustaining a concussive blow.  There were 374 games played in the season with only 46 found concussions (some of them were classified concussion via the Fink Rule).

Not surprisingly after people started taking notice in Australia and with others (like this blog) doing their best to track the injury the AFL reported a rise in incidence;

After the AFL yesterday announced in its annual injury survey that the incidence of concussion rose in 2011 – following the introduction of new guidelines designed to better protect players from the condition…

However we must hand it to the researchers Down Under, as they have begun a test-retest Continue reading →

Footy Concussion Report Round 16

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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; Continue reading →

Footy Concussion Report Round 11

Dustin FinkLeave a comment

he 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.The AFL is nearing the halfway point in the regular season and the concussions listed are starting to trickle in.  However I believe that some teams are following the “script” of NFL teams by not releasing the information if the players miraculously recovering in 5 days.  That “script” would be not releasing the information about the injury if it is not going to effect the upcoming game.

This week there was one “officially” listed and the other occurred on the same team in the same game but has not been reported as a concussion.  However that injury was documented in an article that stated he was hit in the head, removed on a stretcher, went to hospital, and his neck was cleared; guess what the injury is listed as…  “neck”; SMH! Below is the video of the “neck” injury, Goddard looks to have a “stinger” mechanism of injury, however the knock was to the head, and from further reports the injury was suspected to include his head.

So for this report the new listings are from St. Kilda; Continue reading →

Footy Concussion Report Round 10

Dustin Fink2 Comments

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.

Do you recall my rant two weeks ago about the difficulty finding the injuries, especially at the “Superfooty” website?  Well guess what, they have reverted back to the old method and the method adopted by Sportal.  I still have no idea if anyone down under is reading the blog, THEY SHOULD BE, but I would like to think there is someone paying attention.  Let me take this time to extend an invitation for any team doctor or athletic therapist down under to meet with us, via phone or you can travel over here…  BETTER YET, I believe that I can effort the time to head that way for a symposium tour down under (of course this is a shameless plug to pay for me to see some live AFL), haha.  Seriously though I believe I can find enough “smart” people to create a learning opportunity for the AFL and Australian sports about concussions, email us.

Now with the self-promotion and begging for a trip down under out of the way there has been an increase Continue reading →

Footy Concussion Report Round 9

Dustin FinkLeave a comment

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.

After some difficulty finding concussions down under, this week listings were much easier to find as two players were found along with two curious injury designations.  Let us begin with the interesting listings.

Last week I tweeted about Andrew Toovey and the hit he took; VIDEO HERE via AFL.  Seen in the video is Toovey taking a knee to the head as he was falling then his head bounced off the ground.  As he is taken off on a cart his neck was stabilized and it appeared that Toovey was out prior to that.  His injury is listed as “chest”, but we are going to list this as a concussion.

The other listing was not one we could see on a highlight film, but one that makes me think that the listing is a result of a/many concussions.  Simon Hogan of Geelong has been Continue reading →

Footy Concussion Report Round 8

Dustin FinkLeave a comment

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.

It has been about 5 weeks since we updated this list; reason being one could not find any information on concussions in the AFL.  Personally speaking, while watching the games there have been multiple incidences of players being taken off the field, or staggering around after a hit; yet no concussion report.

In fact, after I sent out multiple emails down under for some help in finding this information; the “Superfooty” coverage of injuries changed.  Continue reading →

Footy Concussion Report Round 1

Dustin FinkLeave a comment

The Concussion Blog has decided to take up another project, 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 Herald Sun we will be compiling the concussions on a weekly basis.

Round 1 began with an announcement 48 hours prior to the opener about concussions, and without fail the season began with some high-profile injuries.  The fan base in Australia is rabid for their national game, we are not so much, so I will be learning about the sport as we go along.  We will see that there will be controversy as well with concussion decisions (see below).

If there are some international followers, I know you are out there, or some that know the sport well feel free to send information as it becomes available.  Before we begin with the list here are the particulars about the teams;

  • 17 Teams
  • 18 players on the field
  • 1 designated substitute
  • 3 designated interchangables
  • 22 actives, for a total of 374 players in the AFL
  • 22 game schedule in “home-and-away” portion of season over 24 weeks

I have no clue on positions other than defenders, midfielders and some person called a “ruckman”, so we will not be classifying by position unless our friends down under can educate me.  I will be watching some games Continue reading →