Health & Fitness
Injuries
Screening Young Players
Screening Young Players
Australian Football is a popular sport and from time to time participation may result in a player being injured.
Anecdotally, injuries in junior Australian Football are problematic when players make the transition to senior
football.
Although evidence is sparse, clinical and football opinion is that some elite junior players enter senior ranks with
overt or underlying injuries due to musculoskeletal deficiencies or a lack of conditioning. Once in senior ranks,
managing injury is difficult, and the priority should be on preventing injury in earlier football years. Prevention
relies on knowing which players are most at risk for injury.
Why do musculoskeletal (MSK) screening?
Junior and senior football players undergo musculoskeletal (MSK) screening several times during their
development as a player with the precise intention of identifying risk factors for injury. Screening is designed to
identify intrinsic or individual factors that may predispose a player to both acute or overuse injury. Identifying MSK
deficits or abnormalities and instituting appropriate intervention is in turn designed to reduce injury.
Until this year elite players were screened when aged under 16 and under 18 by the Australian Football League
(AFL) / Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), as well as at entry to senior ranks and then annually while a senior
player by club practitioners. This screening was done by a number of different sports medicine personnel with a
different protocol each time.
MSK Screening Protocol
Through the AFL Research Board, the AFL has developed a standardised MSK Screening Protocol which is
relevant to the game, applicable across different ages and skill levels, suitable for evaluation of injury outcomes
in a cohort study and simple and easy to apply. The screening tools are reliable and valid, easy to perform and
require only inexpensive equipment.
This new approach will allow for meaningful long term determination of risk factors for injury and will be applied to
a much greater number of emerging players through the AFL State Academies.
The screening tests are explained and demonstrated in the video below and the instructional and scoring sheets
can be downloaded below.

Screening questionnaire

Core Tests – page 1

Core Tests – page 2

Screening Test – Level 1

Screening Test – Level 2

Screening Test – Level 3

AF Screen Sheet (excel)

Instructions
Video of typical screening tests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u0DnAjMj3fU