Eddie McGuire has revealed that the AFL is on the edge of releasing a seven-point concussion plan that will change the way head trauma is viewed and attacked in the game.
Three AFL players have already hung up the boots in 2024 after being forced to medically retire from the game, on top of the multiple class actions from former V/AFL players regarding their concussion history.
Now, the league will work to support upcoming, current and retired players to protect their brains and be able to live a fulfilling life when the time comes to hang up the boots.
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"We have to make sure the whole sensibility about concussion changes to saving the player, as opposed to saving the match," McGuire said on Nine's Footy Classified on Wednesday night.
"Let's save the people first, let's look at rorting the system later."
The seven points that the new policy will cover were outlined by McGuire.
The first pillar will be community, which will be centred around education on concussion and head trauma for parents and children.
The next pillars are prevention of concussion and detection, such as improved tackling laws and harsher tribunal penalties that act as a deterrent and independent doctors to diagnose head trauma.
Recovery is the fourth, which will act to further clarify and tighten up concussion guidelines.
The fifth pillar is labelled support, which will see an "injury and hardship fund" introduced to ensure players leaving the game are well aided heading into the real world.
"A no-fault, refocused 'injury and hardship fund' will be established for all players in the AFL. It will be provided for past players without the need for litigation, because most people believe the (concussion) class actions won't get up," McGuire said.
Innovation and development round out the seven pillars.
But how will this actually work in real time?
McGuire broke down just how much money will go towards the policy, which will begin monitoring the brain at a junior football level.
"The AFL are looking to spend tens of millions of dollars on a cross-sectional clinical monitoring system, which basically is a concussion passport," he said.
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"When you come into the AFL, you will be monitored every step of the way, to find out (your brain trauma).
"They're going to scan to enter football ... and probably go back into junior football as well, so that we have a cross-sectional lineup, to work out where players' (brains) are."
It means that players as young as five or six could be observed well before they even think about a professional football career.
Meantime, the more immediate action will see "independent doctors" brought to every game, to make decisions on the severity of a head knock without the bias of a club doctor or player who wants to play on.
It means that Geelong's Jeremy Cameron, who waved off his club doctor after copping a heavy fall from a marking contest in round nine, will be forced off the ground to be checked under a rule that could exist just like the blood rule, that forced players off no matter the time of the game.
"Independent doctors will be brought in ... they will probably be positioned in the ARC," McGuire said.
"What we should be doing, possibly down the track, like the old blood rule, where they just stop the game and ... come off, go behind the shed or down the race, the doctor can assess you properly, you can hold the time clock until you get off the ground."
The seven-point plan will be brought into the game imminently.
"It's wonderful news for past players. The detection model is the next step forward," McGuire said.
Melbourne's Angus Brayshaw, Collingwood's Nathan Murphy and Bulldogs draftee Aiden O'Driscoll, who didn't play a senior game, have all been medically retired in 2024.
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