BREAKING: AFL set to introduce mandatory contact training limits

Trainings at AFL clubs are about to change forever.

It's understood the league has locked in contact training limits for the upcoming men's pre-season, telling club CEOs this week to expect more details by the end of July.

A contact training consultation group will soon be formed to determine how many hours per week clubs can implement contact drills.

The group will consist of club, AFL and AFLPA staff.

Former Hawthorn and Carlton fitness guru Andrew Russell told SEN and Channel 7 on Wednesday evening that clubs average around 30 minutes contact work per week in season, and around two hours per week in the summer.

A fitness boss at an AFL club, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the biggest weeks across the summer saw around four hours of contact work.

Four clubs were identified as high risk in the pre-season and asked to cut back their contact hours for the 2026 season. Two of these clubs were high achieving, and two down the bottom of the ladder.

For the AFL to introduce a mandate across all 18 teams follows a recommendation by the coroner in 2023.

In April the NRL informed its clubs that no more than 115 minutes of full contact training work per week would be permitted.

The AFL uses six definitions to classify contact training.

1: Non contract drills such as stretching and kick to kick
2: Warm up drills such as lane work and ball movement with no defenders
3: Low density, incidental or controlled contact such as one v one ground balls, wrestling and aerial contest
4: Moderate density, incidental contact drills such as stoppage rehearsal with passive defenders
5: Moderate density with full contact drills such as match simulation or small sided games
6: High density full contact match simulation with full contest

The AFLW will introduce the same contact limitations ahead of the next pre-season in 10 months.

Club bosses spoken to by SEN and Channel 7 were supportive of the AFL's stance given the focus on head trauma and believe the stricter limitations will have minimal impact in a practical sense.