An all-girls school in Sydney has banned its students from playing Australian rules football for fear of long-term brain injuries.
Queenwood, located in Mosman on the city’s northern beaches, confirmed the decision in a statement sent to Wide World of Sports.
The school opted to not participate in last year’s independent girls’ inter-school competition and has decided to not let its students play the contact sport.
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Wide World of Sports has contacted the AFL for comment.
“At Queenwood, we loved everything about Australian rules football except for the risk of trauma to the brain,” Queenwood principle Elizabeth Stone told the newspaper.
“We did an extensive review of the research, drawing on expert advice, and what we found concerned us.
“There were three decisive factors. The first was the mounting evidence that adolescents are at greater risk of brain injury than either children or adults.
“The second was the data showing that females experience concussion more frequently and more severely than males. This meant that our students, teenage girls, were in the highest risk category.
The third factor, which is not widely understood, is that the damage accumulates over time from any impact to the head – including sub-concussive impacts. It’s like clocking up charges on a credit card with an unknown but catastrophic credit limit.
“While individuals vary in how many blows to the head they can sustain before crossing the threshold to detectable brain injury, we weren’t comfortable with the idea that our students would be pushing closer to that limit on our watch. They have a lifetime ahead of them.
“We phased out Australian rules football with reluctance but real certainty on the basis of the evidence that it was in their best interests.”
Queenwood has a history of producing successful Australian rules footballers.
Former student Nicola Barr was the No.1 pick at the first ever AFLW draft in 2016 and has played for the GWS Giants since.
But the game in general – as with most contact sports – is grappling with the impact of ever-evolving information and research into head knocks, concussion, and long-term brain damage.
Former AFL players Shane Tuck and Danny Frawley were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after taking their own lives.
Former AFL player Jacinda Barclay took her own life last year, and was found to have neurological damage after her brain was donated to the Australian Sports Brain Bank.
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