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Heading the Game Forward: Why Brain Health Must Be Football’s Next Priority
Football Coaches Australia (FCA) workshop with Nick Gates to equip coaches with critical insights on head impacts, CTE, and player safety.
As football continues to evolve at pace, so too does the responsibility placed on coaches—not just to develop players, but to protect them.
On 4 May, Football Coaches Australia (FCA) will host a vital one-hour CPD-approved workshop led by HEADSAFE’s Nick Gates, tackling one of the most pressing issues in the modern game: brain health.
Titled “Brain Health & Decision-Making in the Modern Game,” the session will unpack the latest global research surrounding head impacts, with a particular focus on the long-term risks associated with repeated heading, including Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and dementia.
But this isn’t just theory.
At its core, the workshop is designed to translate complex medical research into practical, on-the-ground coaching decisions.
What should coaches actually be looking for?
How can they better manage risk in training and matches?
And how can they make informed decisions that prioritise player welfare without compromising development?
These are the questions Gates will address—bridging the gap between science and sideline.
With increasing global scrutiny on concussion protocols and heading guidelines, sessions like this are becoming essential, not optional. The modern coach is no longer just a tactician, but a guardian of long-term player health.
This workshop provides the tools to take that responsibility seriously. Register here.
If you’ve ever sat through a club’s end-of-season review, you’ll know the drill. A coach pulls out a folder of notes, someone half-remembers what a player was like back in Round 3 and a parent quietly wonders what they actually got for their rego fees beyond a team photo. Football club platform Majestri says it has a fix for that, and it’s built directly into its Player Assessment module.
Why clubs bother assessing players in the first place
According to Majestri, clubs run player assessments for one of three reasons – usually more than one at once. Some are chasing genuine development, using the data to lift the level across their high-performance squads. Others are after a fairer way to pick teams, putting every player on the same measurable scale so selection is based on evidence rather than a coach’s gut feel about who “looks the part.” And for clubs operating under a Football Australia or state federation licence, assessments at set intervals often aren’t optional – they’re a compliance requirement, with the paperwork to prove it when asked.
Whatever the motivation, Majestri’s pitch is the same: don’t let that assessment data die in a spreadsheet on someone’s laptop.
Build your own assessment, your way
There’s no one-size-fits-all template here. The Assessment Designer lets technical directors set their own criteria, sort them into whatever categories their coaching staff already use – think core skills, possession, defending, attacking – and decide what each point on the rating scale actually means. Crucially, every criterion also gets a comment field, because a bare number rarely tells the full story of a player’s development.
The Assessment Module Builder, showing an NPL Juniors assessment with a 1-10 rating scale banded from under performing through to excelling and role-specific criteria grouped into core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.
Build it once and it’s reusable every time that assessment cycle comes around, so every player and every coach – is working off the same yardstick.
Something for the parents to actually take home
One of the more relatable pain points Majestri is targeting: most families never see much tangible return from a season of fees beyond a team photo. Player Assessment addresses that with report cards – colour-coded against the same scale coaches used, grouped by category with averages calculated automatically, and delivered as a PDF or an interactive web page a parent can read without needing a coaching badge themselves.
A report card for an under-15 player, colour-coded from under performing to excelling, with a score for every criterion and a group average across core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.
Turning the numbers into something useful
The real value, though, sits in what Majestri calls the Player Analysis Lab. This is where clubs can plot a player against their team-mates or an entire age group across two categories at once, spotting clusters and outliers at a glance. Every score gets read against the group average – so a “7” actually means something in context – and clubs can report at the broad category level or drill into individual fields underneath. The results can be filtered down and exported for selection meetings or grading purposes.
The Player Analysis Lab comparing seven players across under-15 and under-16 squads, with a scatter plot, a sortable table of scores against the player average, and controls for choosing which categories and fields to report on. Source: Majestri.
The admin side nobody enjoys, made easier
Beyond the flashy analytics, there’s a practical layer built for the volunteers actually running the process:
Sweep monitoring – a quick view of which assessments are done and which are still outstanding, organised into defined assessment periods so progress can be tracked against peers.
Individual development plans – every player gets a personalised plan, and clubs can group common improvement areas to run cross-team training sessions that lift the whole club rather than just one squad.
Access control – coaches and technical staff can only see assessments for the teams they’re responsible for, and completed assessments are only visible to people linked to that player’s registration.
“Hard numbers to draw on when you review coaching staff and curriculum – and something tangible for the players and parents who pay the fees.” – Majestri
The bigger picture
Majestri frames all of this as sitting on top of the club’s own data – assessment results live on each player’s profile inside the platform rather than in a spreadsheet that walks out the door when a technical director moves on. For committees, it also means hard numbers to lean on when reviewing coaching staff or curriculum, rather than relying on anecdote.
It’s a fairly clear read on where club administration software is heading: less about digitising paperwork for its own sake, and more about making the data clubs already collect actually work for player development, team selection and compliance without adding to the workload of the volunteers who run the show.
Community consultation has opened on the proposed redevelopment of the Warner Reserve pavilion in Ashburton. Early planning is underway to modernise the facility and improve amenities for local sporting clubs and community users.
The city of Boroondara has received $80,000 in Victorian Government funding to prepare concept designs. They will undertake community consultation as part of planning for the proposed upgrade.
While construction is currently scheduled for the 2032-33 financial year, the project could be brought forward if additional funding is secured.
The proposed redevelopment would see existing pavilion replaced with a modern facility better positioned to service the reserve. Plans include two new changerooms with toilets and showers, a multipurpose community space with a kitchen and canteen, a first aid room, umpire facilities, an externally accessible public toilet and a covered spectator viewing area.
The proposed new look pavilion at Warner Reserve. Image Credit: City of Boroondara
The concept also allows for the future addition of two extra changerooms, should participation levels continue to grow.
As part of the proposal, the existing playground would be relocated to improve visibility and open space within the reserve. Six trees identified for removal would also be replaced with new plantings elsewhere in Warner Reserve.
Residents, sporting clubs and reserve users are encouraged to provide feedback on the proposal before consultation closes on 15 September. Feedback will help refine the concept design before the project progresses to future planning and funding stages.
If delivered, the redevelopment is expected to improve facilities for local sporting clubs and community groups while providing more inclusive amenities to support growing participation across community sport.
