The AFL will mandate limits to contact training from 2027 onwards.
In a bid to mitigate the risk of concussion and head trauma for players, the league has created a contact framework by which AFL and AFLW clubs will have to abide for all pre-season and in-season training sessions from next year.
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At Collingwood alone, Jordan De Goey was concussed at training in 2025, while Nathan Murphy was medically forced to retire after suffering a concussion at training in 2024.
“The days of bringing your mouth guard to training are officially over at the end of this season,” Tom Morris told The Agenda Setters on Wednesday night.
“The AFL has confirmed to CEOs that after this season it will introduce limits to contact training.
“Now, a contact training consultation group will be formed to determine the exact hours, and (there are) definitions used to classify contact training from clearly non-contact drills … and the AFL will determine how many minutes and hours in each of those categories will be allowed for clubs from next pre-season onwards, and for the AFLW girls from next year onwards.
“So this is changing the whole landscape. It follows a coroner’s report in 2023, and it’s a necessary step according to the AFL to protect the heads of players.”
Nick Riewoldt’s only concern was that it might hurt the “on-field product”.
“Well I would ask why. Like, have we been having a spate of injuries at training?” he said.
“Will it improve the product? That’s probably the counter to the argument but anything that’s going to look after the health of players, you won’t get too many arguments.
“That’s the issue around the actual on-field product, is, will that diminish at the expense of protecting the players a little bit more?
Morris added: “I think most of the clubs believe that this is actually a reasonable move and will have practically a minimal difference to how they train.
“But it is a big task that Laura Kane and Greg Swan have undertaken the last few months to come up with this resolution.”
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