In a significant development in the battle against brain injury in sport, teams from the National Rugby League (NRL) and the National Rugby League for Women (NRLW) are now required to restrict the amount of body contact during training sessions.

While the policy has been broadly described as a way to reduce exposure to all injuries, it is clearly targeted at reducing concussion and repetitive brain trauma.

This is the first official contact training limit by an Australian contact sport governing body. It shows that despite decades of rule changes, research and claimed advances in player safety, brain trauma remains a central concern for sport organisations.

What are the new limits?

The new policy makes a distinction between the men’s and women’s competitions.

NRL players are restricted to 100 minutes of contact training during a seven-day period between games – for example, between games that are scheduled on consecutive Saturdays. For shorter turnarounds (for example a team playing on a Sunday and again the following Friday), they will be restricted to 40 or 50 minutes of contact training during the intervening period.

Players in the NRWL can engage in no more than 85 minutes per week on a seven-day turnaround, with the same contact restrictions as the men applying for shorter breaks.

This is undoubtedly a response........

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