AN INDEPENDENT medical official could be tasked with diagnosing concussions during AFL games, taking assessments out of the hands of club medicos.
It's one of the possibilities AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking has flagged, as he and his game analysis team continue to look at ways of protecting players.
Recent figures show clubs average seven concussions per year, equating to about 130 annually across the competition.
The AFLW is also a concern, where Hocking says tackling is "through the roof."
One option is to have an AFL appointed medico on concussion watch at all matches.
"(In future) you might have someone who's sitting in a box, that's actually spotting right throughout the game," Hocking told Radio 3AW on Saturday.
"What we'll continue to do is make sure we adapt the rules to protect players."
Hocking insists a lot of money and energy is being spent on a host of work into concussion at all levels of the game.
"There's a lot of money being spent on it, a lot of time and energy being put into it.
"The technology is exceptional where that's got to, and I think a lot of the fans don't realise that.
"There are live feeds straight to all of the interchange boxes now to the medical officers.
"There's an app that's being introduced as far as all the junior leagues.
"It's fair to say there's a whole host of things that we've got our eye on around concussion."