AFL medical director Dr Peter Harcourt said the new guidelines would include a more comprehensive in-game assessment process for doctors to follow.
It will include elements such as the use of video for evaluation purposes as the AFL attempts to stay at the forefront of world's best practice in the area of concussion diagnosis and management.
"It does raise the issue of how we manage the bench and whether or not we need to revisit that in the context of making the game safer for players," Harcourt said. "It raises that question and there is a debate going on around that."
Club doctors discussed the issue in November and recently entered a dialogue with the AFL about how changes to the interchange may support injury assessment protocols.
Earlier this week Carlton coach Mick Malthouse suggested that consideration be given to an extra sub to be included on the bench to replace a player being assessed for concussion.
"Perhaps what we have got to start to look at is if there is going to be new rules implemented, and we take a player off for 10-15 minutes [for] testing, [that] we've got to have the capacity to put a player on for that 10 to 15 minutes – either a sub or a second sub. Then we're starting to get somewhere," Malthouse said.
Malthouse said the mindset had changed and it was an absolute priority now that the players' heads are protected.
He agreed it was the doctor's call on all matters in relation to concussion, but indicated that the game needed to be realistic and ensure that a player suspected of suffering from concussion could be assessed without anyone feeling any pressure that the team was suffering.
"We can say all we like pre-match [but] during the match we're going 'oh we're getting tossed about in the middle here because we haven't got the resources to replenish'," Malthouse said.
Harcourt said the AFL was prepared to face the challenges that will arise when the new guidelines are introduced because "the bottom line is we won't compromise player safety".
The task of briefing clubs on the implications of the new concussion guidelines has also begun.
The conference on concussion in football, to be held in the week of the season opener, will attract the world's leading experts on the issue of concussion in sport.
It will detail the best practice management of concussion at elite and community level, put concussion research into practice and implement outcomes from the 2012 Zurich International Consensus Conference on Concussion in Sport.
Harcourt said the AFL was very aware of the importance of concussion and was working hard to understand the issue to protect the welfare of players.
"Our concussion management guidelines are now more conservative than the medical evidence suggests is necessary because we place player welfare as the highest priority and want to ensure that people at all levels of the game exercise caution when dealing with concussion," Harcourt said.
"A range of projects are underway to build our knowledge, increase awareness and further enhance our concussion management strategies."
