A push by Australia's professional sports player unions for a coordinated approach to combating the ill-effects of concussion has been wound up.
The Australian Athletes Alliance concussion working group, as it was announced in August 2016, has been disbanded after only operating for around two years.
The group – which included representatives from the player unions of Australia's top eight sports including Australian Rules, rugby, soccer and horse racing – met on a quarterly basis and will soon be replaced with a new AAA concussion group.
Sources with knowledge of the group said it hadn't met for more than a year and some felt that in its original form, it was not able to make satisfactory headway on improving sports response to concussion in Australia. However there were others who thought the group's work was going well before it stopped meeting.
Experts were consulted to give members of the AAA feedback on latest concussion research, advise on potential policy decisions they needed to make, help shape awareness campaigns and give advice on messaging and foster industry and university links to support new research.
The original group included experts such as Associate Professor Alan Pearce, Associate Professor Regina Crameri, Professor Robert Williamson and Associate Professor Terry Coyne, as well as executives from the sports' players unions.
The new group will likely only retain Associate Professor Crameri from the original pool of expert advisers, and will bring in new specialists in the field of concussion.
Sources at AAA wanted to make it clear that while the group had not met for around 18 months there was still discussion and work happening on responses to concussion in sport, and the lasting impacts of it on retired players.
One example of that is the soccer players' union Professional Footballers Australia advocating for better concussion protocols in the A-League and W-League, including but not limited to concussion substitutions.
FIFA's soccer law-making arm, IFAB, is currently exploring how to better allow for players to be treated for concussion. A report earlier this month said the English FA was considering trialling a 10-minute concussion substitution, to allow for better in-game head injury screening.
The AFL has introduced new concussion treatment guidelines for season 2020 and beyond. The rules will make it harder for players who are concussed to play in the next game, particularly if they have a six-day break or less.
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