Internation Sports Concussion Conference – Melbourne, September 2026
Held over three days (workshops on Monday, September 7, followed by the main two-day conference from September 8–9), the event coincided with the historic first regular-season NFL game played in Australia.
It marked Australia’s first international, multidisciplinary concussion conference, bringing together more than 350 local and global experts to discuss prevention, detection, and management of sport-related concussions from elite levels down to junior community sport. The conference was opened by Dr. David Hughes, Medical Director, Australian Institute of Sport, with key presentations delivered by international (Drs John Leddy, Caroline Emory, Tina Masters, and Josh Fawkner) and local experts (Drs Claire Sheppard, Andrew Gardner, Karen Barlow, Gavin Davis, Vicki Anderson and Katie Davies). Highlights of the meeting included several lively panels where medical leads from major sporting codes (NFL, NRL, NHL, FIFA, CA) shared their approaches to concussion prevention, diagnosis and management and those with lived experience of concussion shared their experiences.
The conference was sponsored by the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Connectivity, The Australian Physiotherapy Association, the Australian Football League, the National Football League and endorsed by the Concussion in Sports Group.