- Lions fined $20,000 for grand final violation
- The sanction relates to an incident involving Sophie Conway
- Club doctor missed message from concussion spotter
The Brisbane Lions have been hit with a $20,000 fine after breaching the league’s concussion guidelines during their 17-point AFLW grand final win over North Melbourne in December.
The sanction for the ‘non-intentional’ offense stems from an incident involving striker Sophie Conway.
With about three minutes left in the third quarter, the AFL Brisbane medical concussion monitor warned Conway had to be taken off for assessment after she was seen stumbling on the field.
The Lions doctor didn’t see the message and Conway played the rest of the semester.
When the doctor was alerted at three-quarter time, he performed an assessment on Conway, during which she told him she lost balance due to physical exhaustion, rather than contact with a player.
The Brisbane Lions have been fined $20,000 after breaching concussion guidelines
Sophie Conway (pictured) finished the match without undergoing a full concussion check
While the Brisbane doctor was reviewing video footage, Conway was allowed to return to the field without a SCAT5 being performed.
Conway was then removed from the field after the opening minutes of the final semester to ultimately undergo the SCAT5, which cleared her of a concussion.
Then she was able to finish the match.
The AFL said while Conway did not suffer concussion in the incident, the sanction was imposed due to a non-intentional breach of protocols by the Lions.
A total of $10,000 of the fine will be included in Brisbane’s AFLW Soft Cap, with $10,000 suspended.
“The AFL is committed to protecting the health and safety of all players and requires strict adherence to our clubs’ concussion guidelines,” AFL chief counsel Stephen Meade said.
The Lions have been fined $10,000 and will be fined a further $10,000 if a similar violation occurs in the AFL or AFLW season.
“While we recognize that Brisbane’s offense was not intentional and that Conway did not in fact sustain concussion, we have set high standards that must be met when assessing head trauma to prevent the risk of further injury.”
The concussion ruling came just a day after the AFL announced new rule changes aimed at further protecting players’ heads.
It also comes in the wake of the NBL issuing a $5000 suspended fine to the Perth Wildcats after they failed to substitute Kristian Doolittle from a match immediately after he showed concussion symptoms last month.