Top Neuroscientist Criticizes AFL's Support for New Headgear

Topic: Australian Rules Football

How effective is headgear in reducing concussions?

In short:

The AFL has backed new headgear despite no scientific evidence to yet prove that helmets can reduce concussions.

Leading sports neuroscientists are concerned the helmet is being sold to the public.

The move comes as former players take on the code in a class action lawsuit and the news that many current elite footballers will no longer be insured for head trauma from May 1.

Two world-leading sports neuroscientists have slammed the AFL's move to back a new helmet being tested to determine its capacity to reduce concussion.

The helmet, known as GameGear, is already being sold online even though a study into its efficacy is yet to be completed.

GameGear is funding an $800,000 two-year Monash University-led trial on 600 athletes across Australian Rules football and rugby league.

GameGear is funding research on concussion.

Selling the headgear before the study outcome is known has been branded as 'potentially dangerous' by leading sports neuroscientist Alan Pearce.

I am also concerned that parents are buying this headgear thinking it will protect their kid from concussion.

Athletes can also get a false sense of safety from wearing headgear.

The scientific study on the efficacy of this helmet has not been undertaken, which suggests to me bad science.

Alan Pearce predominantly studies sports-related concussion.

Another sports neuroscientist, Chris Nowinski, pointed out the number one sport for the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is American football.

GameGear currently retails for $215.

GameGear inventor Graeme Attey maintains he intends for his headgear to do what 'seatbelts did for road safety'.

Graeme Attey says his invention does not yet claim to reduce concussion — that is what the Monash study is looking into.

Mr Attey said GameGear was tested in the Transport for NSW Crash Lab and the results showed his invention provided 'reduced head acceleration by 91-94 per cent compared to the four leading brands of commercial headgear'.

However, Mr Attey stated to the ABC his invention did not currently claim the headgear reduced concussion.

We don't claim anything in terms of concussion.

We've done some impact reduction [testing] in the lab which has shown some promise.

But in order to take it to that next step, we need to fund this trial, [to] understand if there are real-world effects.

Studying the impact of CTE

The impact of repetitive hits on athletes has been a growing area of concern in recent years for the major codes.

CTE has been found in the brains of contact sport athletes exposed to repetitive concussive and sub-concussive head injuries.

If you or anyone you know needs help:

AFLW Adelaide Crows premiership player Heather Anderson — who wore a helmet for most of her playing career — was also found to have CTE post-mortem.

Anderson died by suicide in 2022 at just 28.

Dr Nowinski is a leading voice on the issue in America and he says that helmets are useless in preventing CTE.

Last year it was reported that Boston University's CTE centre had diagnosed 345 cases of CTE in the 376 former NFL players' brains it had studied since 2008.

The number one sport for CTE is American football, more than any other sport worldwide — and two thirds of brains in the Boston brain bank are American Football.

Heather Anderson was found to have CTE after her death at age 28.

The idea that a helmet is going to save you from CTE is simply untrue.

But Mr Attey argued his soft-shell helmet would better protect players from these hits than hard-shell helmets.

I don't think it's acceptable that we go out there bashing bare heads together like bricks.

We've got to reduce the impact and the acceleration so that we have a chance of reducing short- and long-term injuries.

The real danger is continuing to use this ineffective headgear or no headgear at all.

Mr Attey also said there had already been '14 years of study, design, prototyping and lab testing' behind his invention.

When lab results are as encouraging as ours, we then have an implied obligation to make our headgear available [to retail].

He added that he was not an owner or shareholder in GameGear, and they were a licensee of his 'technology'.

In a statement to the ABC, GameGear's owners said they were proud the 'medical trial' was underway.

They said it was being administered by Professor Lindy Fitzgerald, who is also the chief executive of not-for-profit Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia.

No other headgear has undertaken this scale of medical trial or undergone this level of rigour in Australia or globally.

Endorsing headgear

Despite the lack of scientific proof that headgear is effective at preventing concussion, the AFL has forged ahead to develop its 'first ever Australian Football Headgear Standards'.

GameGear is the only helmet to have passed the new AFL's standards so far.

Do you know more?

GameGear has confirmed talks with several AFL clubs, which the ABC understands has included Fremantle, West Coast and Hawthorn.

Last November, Nine News Perth in Western Australia first reported that the new GameGear helmet was about to be 'put to the test on professional athletes'.

On January 11 this year, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that GameGear was a revolutionary new helmet that 'could be a game changer' in the 'fight against concussion'.

Two weeks later, the AFL announced its new Australian Football Headgear Standards — released in January — but stipulated in the fine print that even if a helmet met the standards, it did not 'constitute a guarantee' it would actually protect the player from 'sustaining a head or brain injury'.

The AFL is not responsible or liable for the claims made by suppliers to meet these standards, nor is the AFL acting in a regulatory capacity regarding supplier claims.

Nothing in these standards, nor in the headgear prototypes found to meet even the Advanced Head Standard, constitute a guarantee against a player using headgear approved under these standards from sustaining a head or brain injury whilst competing in the game of Australian football.

In early February, GameGear was revealed as the first helmet to meet the AFL headgear standards via a major media launch.

On February 20, the ABC's BTN High — a program targeted at young people — reported on GameGear and 'whether a new helmet will significantly reduce risk of concussion in football players'.

When the ABC sent the AFL a list of questions regarding GameGear headgear and the lack of protection that headgear had historically provided, the AFL did not answer them.

An AFL spokesman instead referred to a media release from January 29 which included comments from the AFL's chief medical officer, Michael Makdissi.

In the January statement, Dr Makdissi said the standards were 'another important step in our ongoing work in the prevention and treatment of concussion'.

Another leading expert on concussion for the AFL is Andrew McIntosh.

Dr McIntosh is a key member of the AFL's working group who helped develop its 'advanced' headgear standards.

He says there was no conflict of interest in his role in testing headgear and consulting to the AFL.

I have no financial interest in GameGear headgear, SAIG [a company that provides voluntary product safety certifications for headgear] or the test lab.

He commended GameGear's 'enormous' effort to meet the AFL's advanced headgear standards.

I would like to see as many headgear models as possible certified to the standards, but at the moment there is only one model.

In my opinion, it is great that GameGear has developed the headgear and gone to considerable trouble and expense to demonstrate its compliance with the standards.

Players making the choice

Over the years, headgear has often been worn by concerned AFL footballers in the latter stages of their careers.

Former Melbourne star Angus Brayshaw, who had a history of head injuries, wore headgear before he was retired because of repeated concussions.

Brayshaw, along with nearly 100 AFL footballers, is currently pursuing an insurance claim to compensate him for his post-career struggles because of concussion.

In late March, 500 AFL players were informed they would no longer be covered for head trauma in their AMP Superannuation fund — of which Zurich provides the insurance — from May 1.

Zurich told the ABC there was 'widespread uncertainty' about the potential magnitude of CTE and the long-term health effects of concussion.

While no player in the AFL is yet wearing GameGear on game day, in the NRL Manly player Jake Trbojevic has decided to.

Jake Trbojevic has opted to wear headgear because of the 'research' behind it.

Trbojevic, who suffered three notable concussions last season and had concerns about his playing future if he were to sustain another, said he was wearing it because of the 'research' behind it.

The fact that there is research behind it, when you get head knocks that your brain doesn't accelerate as much, I think that sort of just won me over the line.

The ABC sent questions to Trbojevic via the Manly Sea Eagles, but they are yet to respond.

While Mr Trbojevic wears it, several NRL sources have told the ABC they do not publicly endorse the use of any headgear to prevent concussion because the research has not established that it protects players from brain injuries.