Essendon coach Brad Scott says club doctors remain the best option as an authority on whether players should return to the field after head knocks.
The former AFL general manager of football says he is confident coaches are not swaying the club’s medical team as a league investigation continues into Port Adelaide’s handling of a heavy collision between two players on the weekend.
Defenders Aliir Aliir and Lachie Jones both briefly lay motionless on the ground after colliding in the second quarter of the Power’s loss to Adelaide on Saturday night.
Jones was subbed out of the game due to a migraine after undergoing a SCAT test, but Port Adelaide was issued a “please explain” notice by the AFL after Aliir did not undergo the test and returned to the field.
Both players have now entered the league’s concussion protocols, with Power club doctor Mark Fisher conceding Aliir should have received the test immediately after the collision.
Asked whether there should be an independent authority in charge of assessing head knocks to players, Scott said there was already league oversight of collisions during games, and he thought club doctors were in the best position to make the call on their own players.
“If the AFL haven’t made that clear, there are spotters who are looking for these incidents in the ARC at every game, just as a failsafe to make sure nothing is missed,” he said.
“We’ve had it happen to us, where a spotter has said, ‘No, you need to go back and have a look at that incident and assess the player’.
“So there is a component of it that is independent, but the doctor still knows the player, has done the concussion testing in the pre-season – they’re still best placed to make the decision in my view.”
Scott said he would never interfere with a head injury assessment or concussion test during a game, and he did not think other coaches did so.
“Every situation is different, but as a coach, if there’s a big collision, as a baseline I just expect that the player is not going to be available for the next 15 minutes at a minimum because the doctor is going to take the time to make the assessment,” he said.
“The really important thing from my perspective is, certainly in my experience, the coach has no say.
“I don’t even ask our doctor for an update, it’s just, ‘You tell me if he’s right, or if he’s not’.
“The coach shouldn’t, and in my experience doesn’t, have any say, so that means it’s the doctor who needs to make these calls.”
Scott’s call comes after popular Hawthorn ruckman Max Lynch was forced to retire from football on Monday following an AFL independent medical concussion panel recommending he no longer played any contact sport due to repeat concussions.