Children would be sidelined from contact sport for two weeks after being cleared of concussion symptoms under a landmark policy released by the Australian Institute of Sport and Australian Medical Association.
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The collaborative position statement made on Saturday tackles the growing health concerns about concussion and launches a federally funded one-stop website.
The site features reliable and up-to-date clinical information, videos and decision-making tools and has specialised flow charts and guidelines for athletes, parents, teachers, coaches and medical practitioners.
The news comes one week after Gundagai teen Lui Polimeni's tragic on-field concussion in an under-16s game against the Tumut Blues.
The 15-year-old was flown to Canberra Hospital in a critical condition suffering severe stroke symptoms and his family made the heart-breaking decision to switch off his life support on Tuesday.
There has been a 60 per cent rise in the number of people admitted to hospital for sport-related concussion in the past decade, but AIS chief medical officer Dr David Hughes,said general knowledge about concussion and its management at a community sporting level was poor.
"In Australia we don't really have accurate collection of figures for incidences of concussion," he said.
By extrapolating international figures it is estimated there are as many as 100,000 cases of sports-related concussion annually.
Dr Hughes said children were particularly vulnerable to concussion because their brains were still developing.
"Our review of the literature, and that's ongoing, is that children are more prone to concussion and take longer to recover than adults," he said.
"It's important to point out that the 14-day sit-out is not from their concussion to when they return to sport, it's 14 days of being symptom-free."
Queanbeyan Royals under 18s coach Jarryd Pianca said the website would be a useful real-time tool, particularly in junior games with less on-field medical staff.
"We've been pretty lucky with head knocks this season," he said. "But having these resources makes it easier for everyone involved with sports to make informed decisions and have mature discussions about the seriousness of concussion."
The junior rugby club's president, Keiran Larnach, said the majority of kids played several sports so more oversight was needed to support player welfare.
To prevent information falling through the gaps he suggested creating a register where clubs could search a player's concussion history.
"A lot of your eager and older age kids won't tell you and may turn up after a knock in another code," he said.
"Having a database where you have to notify when a player has been concussion or suspected of concussion means clubs and coaches can cross-reference that before signing players on for a match."
Dr Hughes stressed the report's message was not about deterring people from playing contact sports, shown to deliver great emotional, physical and mental health benefits to children, but to ensure all sporting environments were as safe as possible.
"We want to inform people and alleviate their anxiety by giving them information and the tools to recognise and act when concussion is suspected," he said.
"We all need to be vigilant when it comes to recognising the warning signs. A simple piece of advice that applies to everyone is: 'If in doubt, sit it out'."
