JOEL Selwood was not considered for selection on the weekend, Geelong medicos unwilling to risk him in battle seven days after a couple of heavy blows to the head.

The same medicos made the same decision on the same player last year in round two.

Said Geelong's general manager football Neil Balme of the weekend decision: "We've been a bit concerned about him all week, it's on account of the concussion [suffered in round five against Brisbane]."

Asked if the club was concerned about the "big picture" on Selwood, who regularly receives medical assistance in matches for heavy knocks, Balme said: "You can't afford to be in a way, and you can't afford not to be in another. We love the way he plays. He does get hit a little bit too much, maybe. You can only stay close to it. You can't tell him to play differently, I don't think."

There is a distinction between a concussion and knock to the head, but fortunately, clubs, are beginning to treat all issues relating to a player's head with great care.

That hasn't always been the case in the VFL/AFL, but greater education and awareness of the potential for serious long-term damage has forced change.

The Geelong decision to leave Selwood out of its team to play Melbourne came in the same week that another former NFL player, the revered and future Hall of Famer Junior Seau, took his own life with a gunshot to the chest.

Within hours of his death, it was being widely reported in the United States that Seau could be yet another former gridiron player to commit suicide due to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neurological disorder related to repeated head trauma. CTE has also been linked to Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Seau's brain, like that of some other deceased NFL players, is expected to be forensically analysed by the pathologist who 10 years ago revealed a link between the deaths of former American footballers with chronic brain damage.

The famed Boston University, which is an industry leader in this type of research, also wants access to Seau's brain.

When it comes to CTE, a diagnosis can be made only after death.

On top of the CTE cases, more than 1500 ex-NFL players have sued the NFL, claiming the game's peak body hid the link between head knocks in games and permanent brain damage.

This column is not in any way suggesting Geelong withdrew Selwood over anything related to Seau's suicide.

But there is little doubt that the legal action now common in the NFL will soon become more regular in an AFL sense, and not rest with the litigation we already know of taken by ex-Demon Daniel Bell.

Only last year, Adelaide player Scott Stevens was forced into retirement after a series of concussions left him feeling too ill to play.

Former Eagle Dean Kemp has suffered post-football problems related to heavy knocks on a football field.

Selwood's Geelong teammate Jimmy Bartel admitted twice last year in media interviews that he was nearing concussion No.10 in his football career.

He also said he suffered significant memory loss in early 2011 after being concussed twice in four months.

The AFL has instituted many initiatives, including employing a high-level panel of neurosurgeons, in recent years in order to ensure it is doing everything it possibly can on this issue.

It has sought, and will continue to seek, industry-leading advice on how best to deal with all matters relating to footballers and head knocks.

The AFL game, as brutal as it can be at times, is not as regularly brutal as the NFL. Nor does it require so many of its participants to, play after play, put their heads on the line.

But, it is inevitable retired AFL players will do as the NFL ones have done, and explore legal avenues related to brain problems.

There are two retired players currently working on high-powered legal cases on this front.

And leading Australian neurosurgeon Jeffrey Rosenfeld recently said he expected there to be a spate of AFL litigation related to retired AFL players suffering brain problems.